How to Fix a Damaged Heart
by BoOkWoRm88424
Summary: The story of how I, Brynn Connelly, went from an extremely hostile loner to the girlfriend of a slightly emotional werewolf. Embry/Oc
1. Chapter 1

I don't have friends because I am a hostile person.

That's what my brother used to tell me at least. According to him, I insulted people too much. And I guess he was right. I mean, I was always a little bit disagreeable. I had my fair share of arguments. I tended to find myself sitting alone in dark corners brooding more often than was probably healthy.

And I guess its just the way things were.

I mean, I always just accepted my solitude. It was my truth.

Now don't get me wrong, I wasn't hated or anything. I was just invisible to everyone. After my mother died, I told my peers to leave me alone so many times, that one day, they decided to listen. By the time I hit high school, I was used to it though.

Funny how things work out, huh?

Of course, I'll admit that the universe wasn't completely to blame for my lack or friends. My father would say I had an attitude problem, and while I don't think it was quite as dramatic as he made it out to be, his claims weren't completely unfounded. I got defensive ...a lot. And I didn't have the most effective filter in the world.

But hey! At least I was honest about it right?

I knew I antagonized people, and I liked it that way.

So I guess this is the part where I start telling you what changed everything. I've got to warn you now that the story is kind of long and involved. At some point you're probably going to say "Wow this girl is a total idiot." Or maybe you'll use a more colorful word. I don't know.

But the Doc that's sitting across from me right now says it'll help to get the feelings out. And a certain someone is going to get upset if I start mouthing off to the therapist. Don't worry, I'm not crazy or anything. My story isn't going to end wih me being commited. That would totally suck.

My boyfriend just thinks it would be good for me to get some of my negative energy out. And really, whatever helps him sleep at night, right?

Any who, back to the story. I guess it starts in September of 2006. I was a junior in high school, and I wasn't exactly thrilled about it.

See, I never liked Forks. To me it was like a rotten pit filled with all sorts of bad memories. And high school specifically wasn't exactly heaven on earth either. It's pretty rough even for the best of us, and like I said, I had no friends, so I'm sure that wasn't helping my case.

Anyway, it was a Monday, and a pretty average one at that. I had woken up that morning feeling particularly grumpy. It was raining outside, like it always was, and my dad had hidden my keys somewhere again. He'd probably gone out at some obsene hour the night before to buy some beer or something- but that's beside the point.

What's important here is that I was extremely unhappy when I trudged into homeroom that morning, just barely on time.

I was already half asleep again when my teacher, Ms, Johnson skipped into the room with her creepy rainbows-sunshine-and-daisies-smile plastered on her face.

"Good morning," she trilled to us lightly, as if seeing our sour and depressed faces had just made her entire day. I pretty much wanted to slap her right there and then, nust to wipe the cheerful mask from her face, but see, they expel you for that kind of thing, and I usually tried my very best to stay out of the principle's office.

"Class, we're going to start learning poetry today!" she went on. This time, I wasn't alone in my little corner of silent loathing. The entire class let out a collective groan.

"Oh don't sound so excited," Ms. Johnson snapped her fingers at us. "I can assure you all, I'll have you all begging for more by the time I'm done with you."

She had said that about our last assignment too, when we read Animal Farm, a book about communist pigs. I already knew, if I was going to be begging for anything, it would be for ear plugs.

Ms. Johnson's was just about to launch into some long winded lecture about some British guy named William- don't ask me wich William, I wasn't paying close enough attention to remember- when there was a tentative knock on her door.

A girl I didn't recognize stuck her head into the room. "Ms Johnson's English Literature class?" she asked looking unsure of herself.

"Yes dear?"

"I'm Megan Purser from La Push, Principle Greene said you'd be expecting me."

"Oh of course!"

I'm still not entirely sure what put me off so badly about Megan on that first day. I mean she didn't look particularly mean and menacing. She had black hair that was pulled back into a careless pony tail, and her features were rather striking. Her eyes were set a little wide, and her cheek bones were pointed, but the combination seemed to work for her. It made her black eyes stand out, and her russet coloring made her look foreign in a way that some guys liked. Maybe that's what I hated so badly. She looked _popular._ Like the kind of person who would be nice to your face, but would only want to hang out with people who mattered.

And I guess that really rubbed me the wrong way, even if I didn't know it back then.

So yeah, before I had even spoken a word to this girl, I had already written her off as some sort of enemy. Sure, it was a little harsh, but it was the way I was back then. Like I said before I got defensive a lot.

I partially blame it on my natural hormonal teenage girl insecurities.

"Class, this is Megan Purser," Ms. Johnson began to introduce the new girl. I rolled my eyes dramatically in a very mature effort to personify my extreme disapproval of this little kindergarten introduction new-girl Megan was receiving. "Megan will be joining us for the rest of the semester as part of the cultural enrichment exchange program we are participating in. As a school, we've sent over three students to the local high school on the La Push Native American Reservation, and they have sent over Megan here in return. I know that you all will help her adjust accordingly, and will make the most of this enrichment opportunity."

I let out a groan, to emphasize the previous eyeroll. In retrospect, that was a very bad idea, as Ms. Johnson turned towards me with white pursed lips. "Ms. Connoley! I'm glad to see you've volunteered to give Megan your warmest welcome. Megan why don't you take a seat next to Brynn right there."

My eyes bulged out in horror of the extreme injustice that Ms. Johnson was inflicting upon me. See, I had worked very hard to get that corner all to myself. It was the product of three years of intimidation tactics to get all of my class mates to naturally give me sole custody of all cramped corners. And it was more than just that. If Ms. Johnson was going to force some company upon me, I most certainly didn't want to have Megan Purser be the one joining me. Like I said before, I had already decided I didn't like her.

Megan, of course, was completely oblivious to all the hate I was telepathically sending her way, and with a quick chirp of assent, she skipped over and took her seat. Seconds later, Ms Johnson was back to her lecture, and I was annoyed. Like you should have seen me. I had my arms croseed, and my expression screamed: murderous.

Naturally, Megan elbowed me lightly and decided to strike up a conversation.

"She said your name was Brynn right?" she whispered with a friendly smile.

"No, she said my name was Brian," I replied sarcastically. She had heard the English witch say my name loud and clear. We both knew it. I hated formalities.

"Haha," Megan laughed nervously. "Well, it's nice to meet you too, I guess."

I didn't respond, hoping to end the conversation there. For a minute it worked. Megan got awkward pretty fast, fiddling with the bracelet on her wrist and avoiding eye contact with me. You know- the sort of reaction you'd expect someone would have after realizing that their neighbor in English class has some inexplicable anti-social chipnon their shoulder.

I was content though, for the moment. I could deal with her presence if we never talked. Of course, any period of peace I used to have never lasted long.

"So I'm going to need you all to get into pairs for this project. Just keep the groups simple, pair up with your neighbors," Ms. Johnson sang from the front of the room. I stiffened. Group projects were every conventional loner's biggest nightmare.

I glanced over at Megan, not bothering to conceal my disappointment. She had put on a freindly smile again when she realized I was going to be working with her, but upon seeing my expression, she faltered.

"Did... Did I do something to offend you?" she asked evenly. Her eyes gleamed with genuine curiosity, but behind that, there was a hint of an edge. Her question was more than just an inquiry. It was a challenge. If I chose to take this any further, she wouldn't take it in silence.

I was practically speechless. I had written Megan off so quickly earlier that I wasn't expecting her to bite me back. And furthermore, she was challenging me with a finesse I wasn't accustomed too. I had gotten in arguments before, but for the most part I never started them. Sure, I set the tone, but I was never the one to initiate the yelling. Megan had just thrown thr ball into my court. And lo and behold, I wasn't remotely prepared to handle it.

So instead of making things infinitely worse than they needed to be, I just narrowed my eyes suspiciously, and said, "No."

"Okay, well good because I've only been here for like ten minutes. It would really suck if I had made an enemy before the end of first period," she said. Her smile was back, and she seemed at ease.

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I felt completely out of my element now that we had made an agreement to be civil. Like I said, playing nice wasn't my forte. I wasn't sure what to do next. If I spoke would I say something wrong? If I didn't, would she think I was iceing her out more? Did I even want to be freindly? It wasn't too late to turn back, even if I just told her we were on good terms.

Megan made the decision to speak before I could straighten my thoughts out.

"Have you been in Forks long?" She inquired.

"My whole life," I mumbled back, scowling again. I used to hate Forks with a passion, see. It held far too many bad memories. I always wanted to go live in some big city- somewhere I could get lost in a crowd. You most certainly couldn't do that here. Everything you did in public was going to be permanently remembered by the collective town psyche. It wasn't like anyone had anything better to do than stick their nose in everybody else's business.

"Yeah?" Megan sighed. Her eyes looked wistfully out the window, and her face grew distant. "Me too. Well, not here in Forks. I mean, I've spent my entire life in La Push. That's why I'm doing this program actually. I wanted to get some space, meet some new people." She bit her lip, and for a moment, she looked incredibly vulnerable.

I felt my heart squeeze in horror. I could see quite clearly the dorection this conversation was taking. I had to put a stop to this deep heart-to-heart before it started. Luckily I was always armed with an unhealthy amount of sarcasm.

"Well, you've clearly stepped leaps and bounds out of your comfort zone here. I mean, traveling all the way to Forks? It must have been such a taxing drive," I snorted incredulously.

Megan, surprisingly, didn't seem put off my tone. In fact, she smiled widely at my response. "My parents wouldn't let me go any farther. Trust me, I would've if I was allowed. I figured Forks was better than nothing right?"

I thought about it for a moment. I felt a little better now that she seemed in a joking mood again. All the scary serious emotions has vanished. "Yeah, I guess so," I said carefully. My voice surprised me when it left my lips. It was shockingly... not hostile. I guess I shouldn't have been that impressed with myself, but I was. Megan must have been a mind-reader because she had picked the one topic that I could completely and utterly relate to. I doubt that there was anybody who wanted to be free of their own home more than I did.

"Are you still living at home?" I asked. At this point I was growing suspicious of myself. It wasn't often that I had normal conversations, and on the off chance I did, I never went around asking personalu questions. Some smaller part of my brain wondered if I was coming down with a cold or something.

"Yeah," Megan sighed. I smiled, sort of- I was sort of worried I was doing the whole 'socialization' thing wrong. The glassy-eyed look that Megan had been wearing moments ago returned breifly. This time I was almost tempted to ask if she was okay. She had swallowed the expression before I got around to it. "I don't plan on spending much time in La Push for the rest of the semester though. Not if I can help it."

Up in the front of the room, Ms Johnson had written a list of instructions on the board, outlineing the group project that we were supposed to be working on. I pointed to it, groaning.

"We should get started," I muttered.

Megan nodded, and a few minutes later, we were nose deep in an artfully decorated list of the different rhetorical devices that our dead freind William used in one of his poems. Megan did most of the writting and drawing, and I appreciated the gesture. I wasn't much of an artist myself, and my penmanship was kind of scary.

The period ended too soon.

Of course, I would have never admitted that I was actually enjoying myself. But when I say it ended too soon, that's really what I mean. We weren't finished our project yet. It was due the next day, and that meant that Megan and I would have to work on it outside of class. I was really hoping to avoid that.

She didn't seem too upset about it, of course. She bounced to her feet when the tone sounded and started packing up her things beside me. "So I was thinking that maybe we could go to the library after school, m'kay? We could finish up our work then without having to go over anyone's houses or anything. That'd probably be a little bit of a hastle, you know," she said.

"Avoiding the house right?" I said, calling out her motives for what they were.

She shrugged with a smug smile on her face. "I guess that won't hurt either. Unless you want to go over your house. I got the impression that you kind of wanted to avoid that though," she said.

"My father doesn't let me have people over," I said quickly. Too quickly. It made me look suspicious. It wasn't a lie though. He didn't like it when strange people were in his house. He said that it was some kind of theft risk or something. If it was absolutely necessary, I could probably just tell him that my guest was one of Aiden's friends. It'd probably be okay then. There were precious few things that perfect Aiden could do to piss that man off.

Of course, I had never tested this theory before. I hadn't had a reason to try since I was little. No friends to bring over, that is. And when I was little, I wasn't smart enough to think of a way around my dad's stupid rules. So yeah, the only people to step foot on my doorstep in years have probably been, me, Aiden, my father and the mail man. It's a fact that I learned to live with. And honestly, it never bothered me much.

"He sounds really charming," Megan joked absently.

I rolled my eyes. "If you say so," I muttered. "Hey didn't you say that you had to go to pre-calc with Mr. Prentiss next?" She nodded. "His room is that way."

I pointed a finger in the opposite direction I was walking. "Oh, whoops. See you later then. Maybe I'll sit with you at lunch or something."

Then she was gone, disappearing down the hall, and I was left in my familiar silence.

I wasn't sure whether I was happy she was gone or not though. It was kind of nice to talk to someone for once. Of course, I wasn't that far gone from myself. Even if I did have mixed feelings about Megan Purser, I told myself that I hated her company as much as I hated everyone else's. When she said she was going to try and sit with me at lunch, my face quickly twisted into a scowl. I was too used to pushing people away to do anything ofherwise.

I bumped passed Ms. Johnson as I made my way our of the classroom. And though I wasn't paying much attention, I swear, she was looking particularly smug as she watched me exit the room.

* * *

A/N Hiya,

This is my first Twilight story on this account, but not my first ever. But yeah, this is my new story. Embry/OC, as I pointed out in the summary. I know, no Embry just yet, but I promise, that's coming soon. It usually annoys me when I read stories that just jump into the imprint right away. I prefer when the story kind of eases you into it. So that's what I'm going for here.

So... What'd you think of Brynn? And Megan? I'm not sure I have Brynn's voice nailed down just yet, but I'm getting there.

Reviews are appreciated, greatly ;)


	2. Chapter 2

I picked the spot in the library closest to the door because I liked feeling like I could escape at any moment. If Megan walked in and was suddenly completely awful, I could do the practical thing: make like a ghost and disappear.

What's that you say? What about the school project we were working on?

Yeah, it's true that if I scampered out of that library, our project wouldn't be complete the next day. Oh, and there's that little issue that she sat next to me in first period now. So really, running away then would just lead to a confrontation later. But all that was beside the point. I probably wasn't actually going to make a break for it, even if our conversation made a sudden less-than-friendly turn for the worse. I just liked having that option there. Just in case.

You see, I'd had a long time that day to fret over the whole group project thing. After she left me first period, I felt like I was walking around in a thick fog. My mind kept wandering back to first period, and my miraculously civil conversation with Megan Purser. I kept telling myself how awful it had been. She was annoying, I muttered when nobody was paying attention. The girl probably had everything in La Push- a happy family, great friends and all the works. And there she was, complaining to me about the hand she had been dealt in life, like she was some sort of charity case.

I didn't want to admit that she actually seemed genuine. Once I admitted that, it meant I had to admit that I could relate to her. And of course, I wouldn't hear of that. Megan? Relatable? Absolutely ridiculous!

So I started making up stories about her in my head because it clearly made me feel better about myself.

It was kind of like how when you're little, and some kid takes your ice cream, so you go over and kick them in the shin. The revenge gives you an amazing sense of satisfaction. Except that Megan had sort of offered me her metaphorical ice cream (a.k.a. friendship) and I decided to kick her anyways (mentally of course) to gain a very similar feeling a gratitude. Makes perfect sense right?

Megan hadn't sat with me at lunch, and that sort of made the anticipation approaching our impending library session worse.

Earlier, I went to my usual spot- a wobbly table located away from everyone else, and waited for Megan to arrive, telling myself how dreadful the next half an hour was going to be.

She walked into the cafeteria looking out of her element, and instinctively, I ducked closer into myself, thinking that maybe she wouldn't see me. She did, but just before she could walk over to my table, Jason Fredrick intercepted her.

Now before I keep going, I've got to make a point here. Jason was popular in every sense of the word. He fulfilled the stereotype perfectly. He had loads of friends, was the star of our surprisingly half-decent track team, and breezed through school. And of course he was kind of cute too, but that's another thing I would have never admitted back then. He probably knew my name since Forks was such a small town, but he'd definitely never spared me a second thought. It wasn't that I was crushing on him or anything; although, I probably wouldn't have been too devastatingly upset if he had liked me in that way. I just wanted some acknowledgment. Not only from him, but from everyone.

Sounds kind of weird, I know. One second I want to go to a big city where I can disappear, and the next I want people to notice me in wee little Forks. I suppose what I really craved was for someone to see me- the real me. Whether I found that in a huge metropolis where I could start fresh and bury my entire past, or right in my back yard didn't really matter so much.

Any who, point is, I hated Jason Fredrick with the burning passion of one thousand suns. The fact that he wanted to talk with Megan put me off. Sorely

I watched as he schmoozed her, motioning over to his table a few times. Megan glanced over at the seat he was trying to take her to, and some of the other kids there waved. Megan then motioned towards me in the corner, and I could see my name float from her mouth.

Jason glanced towards me, and I met his gaze. I hunched my back venomously, sending buckets of bitter anger his way with my eyes. His shoulders shuddered as he let out a light laugh, apparently dismissing Megan's objections. She glanced back over towards me one last time before finally caving and sitting at a table full of my self-declared enemies.

The nerve!

So yeah, by the time school ended and it was time for us to meet in the library, I was in an extraordinarily awful mood. And I'm sure that all the personal-injury she'd given me was pretty prominent on my face.

She arrived five minutes after me, a bubbly smile on her face. "Hey Brynn. Ready to finish this up?" she practically sang.

"Yeah whatever," I said, brooding. She caught my eye, and the happy-go-lucky grin vanished from her face. Instead, she looked guilty.

"Sorry I didn't sit with you at lunch, Jason dragged me over to his table, and I didn't want to say no. It'd be rude and everything. Maybe you could come sit with us tomorrow? Then everyone would be happy," Megan squirmed.

"If I ever wanted to sit with Jason and all of his friends, I would've done it already. I like my seat in the corner. Alone," I said, emphasizing the last word. I had already let her do enough damage to my psyche. I should have known better than to think I might actually have made a friend. Well I wasn't going to let it happen again. Not on my watch.

I was going to revert back to anti-social Brynn, Fork's local creepy hermit.

Megan frowned. "That's a little depressing, don't you think?" she said quietly. She looked distressed.

"It's the way things roll around here. Okay?" I snapped irritated. I kind of felt like she had insulting me. I mean, this was my way of life- sitting in corners and avoiding people. I chose it. Who was she to go telling me that it was wrong? That it was depressing?

She had no right, not after sitting with Jason Fredrick at lunch.

"What? That people try and be nice and then you snap at them? That's just how things are?" Megan said, a sudden edge to her voice.

"Yes, it is. Why? Do you have a problem with that?" I challenged. I was completely closed off now, my mush gushy parts shoved into some locked black pit inside my chest, and I was bitter enough to let this escalate into something big. Megan needed to get the message fast, for the sake of both of our well-being.

Megan's eyes bulged slightly and a certain vein in her forehead popped out. She looked incredibly frustrated, and quite frankly, I thought she deserved it.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to sit with you at lunch, okay? No Jason or any of his friends, I promise," she said quietly, before resuming to work on our project.

I was struck speechless, completely disoriented. This girl was going to give up a spot at the popular kid's table to sit with me? Was she jacked up on crazy juice or something? That was insane! What I would have given to be in her place, to sit at that table and actually belong. And she was giving that up to be my friend, instead of theirs.

I didn't understand, couldn't comprehend, why she would do that. But of course, I didn't really known her then. Looking back, it makes perfect sense.

We finished the rest of the project in relative silence. Most of our conversation consisted of some brief comments on our work. I thought it was a little awkward, but Megan seemed comfortable enough. Every now and then she would glance up at me with this odd look in her eye. She seemed content.

It was super weird actually, but I you know, I was kind of a little behind on all my social norms. I kind of figured it was normal at the time.

Anyways, we finished up our work. The second the last "i" was dotted and "t" was crossed, I was on my feet.

"Guess I'll see you tommorrow," I said quickly.

"Yeah, tommorrow," she agreed quietly. She reached down into her pocket and pulled out her phone, glancing at the screen. Her lips pursed together and she had that distant look on her face again.

I started retreating, fast. Pulling my keys out of my pocket, I bolted from the library, almost jogging towards the parking lot. I didn't dare look back until I was out of veiw from the library. Only then did I dare breath a sigh of relief.

That didn't go half as bad as I thought it was! I mean sure, Megan seemed to want to be my freind, and that scared me half to death, but if that was the worst thing that happened to me that day, how could I complain?

I'd had worse days, that's for sure.

I walked over to my car- or rather my dad's car. He was always quick to remind me who really owned it. Thankfully, he allowed me to drive it to school though. He was unemployed, so it wasn't like he was going to use it for himself. And of course, Aiden usually hitched a ride with his friends. Apparently, he was too important to be seen in an old beat up station wagon. Not when his best friend owned a fifteen year old jeep. That was much cooler.

Despite my vehicles numerous short comings- and trust me its issues were quite extensive- it was still a car, and a car meant freedom from my brother and his obnoxious friends. So I dealt with it.

Throwing my bag into the back seat, I turned my key. The engine sputtered to life after a few seconds, and I started pulling out.

Megan came flying out of nowhere. Running from the school, she sprinted up to my passenger side door and knocked on the window. I had half a mind to run her over, the way she practically jumped behind my car, but, I guess that might be considered illegal or something.

"What?" I asked exasperated.

"Can you give me a ride home?" she breathed with a small smile. "My parents ... Their just a little preoccupied right now."

Is it bad that the first thing that passed through my mind was saying something very very rude? It was like a reflex, I guess. Be thankful that I surpressed it because this story would be kind of sucky if I ruined everything right there.

But I digress.

She was sitting in the passengers seat a few moments later, and I was grumbling something unintelligble about how my dad was going to kill me for wasting gas.

"Which way to La Push?" I asked.

"Really?" she responded raising her eyebrows. "You've never been?"

"I drive to school and back, with basically no exceptions," I said tersly. "I'm not big on driving in general, actually."

"Oh? Why not?" Megan persisted. I sent her a slightly dirty look.

"Personal reasons."

"Ah," she said catching my tone. "Well La Push is pretty close, just a ten minute drive from here. It's kind of har to miss, I mean, we have a sign."

I snorted. "Is it a big sign?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

"Huge," she grinned.

"Well I guess that's what counts," I said.

I followed her instruxtions down Fork's main road, heading for the coast. Everything was going great, I was playing nice. We were having a freindly conversation. The entire thing was so impecably normal. Just two girls driving home from school.

Well, if you've caught anything about me in the last page or two, you'll know what comes next. The excrements-to use a less colorful word- were about to hit the metaphorical fan.

The other car came out of nowhere.

One second I was cruising through a green light, my hands gripped tightly around the steering wheel, and then suddenly we weren't moving forward anymore. The impact was jarring, as the other vehicle rammed into the side of our car head on. I felt my body fly against the seat belt as the strap dug painfully into my shoulder. Then the airbag went off, slamming me back against the seat. Somewhere behind me, I could hear glass breaking, and beside me, Megan let out a gurgled cry.

It took me what felt like a millennium to realize that we weren't moving anymore. I turned my head to the right- too fast, the motion hurt- looking desperately to see if Megan was okay. She was staring at the road wide-eyed, in shock. Slowly, she looked down at herself, then at me.

"A-are you okay?" I asked slowly. My voice sounded choked.

She nodded. "I-I think so. Are you?" she breathed back. Her voice was squeaky, like a petrified mouse. Clearly she wasn't okay, but I wasn't ready to register that.

I didn't answer he question immediately, instead looking down at myself, checking for the first time. I looked to be mostly intact. My shoulder was red and bleeding from the seat belt, but it could've been worse.

I swallowed, feeling my entire body starting to shake.

It could've been so much worse.

Then suddenly, I was furious. Not at Megan or myself, but at the other driver. I had a green light, meaning their light was red. What the hell did they think they were doing?

"H-hello?" a distraught voice called from Megan's side of the car. It must be him- the other driver.

I reached shakily towards the handle of my door, feeling the fury burn through me. Slowly, I unbuckled my seatbelt, and rose to my feet. My legs felt like jelly, but I forced them to work. Tears burned in my eyes, but I ignored them. I didn't have time to start this now. I'd allow myself to break down later, when I was in private.

I saw him before he saw me. He was huge, standing at least six feet tall, maybe even a little more. His black hair was cropped short, and his skin was a dark russet color- very similar to Megan's actually. The idiot wasn't wearing a shirt, and for whatever reason, that seemed to verify the irresponsibility of his crime in my mind. It was like his recklessness was being personified by the fact that he was half naked, and it really pissed me off.

His expression looked dazed, like he hadn't been expecting the crash either, and I briefly wondered if he was on something. It was possible, I guess. A little bit of alcohol would explain this incident perfectly. That errant thought just made everything seem so much worse.

There was a smear of blood on his cheek, but I couldn't see where it had come from. He didn't look injured to me.

I searched for my voice as he leaned down to peer into our vehicle. "Megan?" he squeaked. "Oh my- crap. Are you all right?"

"Embry?" she responded, seeming confused. Did she know this guy? With fumbling hands he reached for her door, going to help her out of the car or something.

Seeing him try to help... I felt my restraint snap, and suddenly my anger erupted. "What. The. F-"

Then he looked up at me, and our eyes connected. I lost my train of thought immediately. It was unnatural. His eyes were a deep brown color, so dark underneath the overcast sky that they almost seemed black. Suddenly, it was like we weren't there anymore. The car disappeared from my side, and so did Megan. All that mattered was this stranger, and the fact that he was looking at me. And it was so incredibly important that he look at me.

My entire world felt like it was spinning out of reach, but I didn't even care because he was here with me. I didn't know him, I couldn't tell you his name, or describe his personality. But I felt bound to him somehow. Like I needed him there or else I'd crumble. The emotion was so sudden, so overpowering, that I thought I might cripple right then and there.

I was again aware of the fact that he was half naked, but in a different way this time. If you know what I mean.

Then I heard Megan whimper.

"Embry? Brynn?" she breathed again. "Oh no."

She sounded so incredibly helpless. Her voice was pleading with us. I felt my eyes leave the boy's and look back towards the car, involuntarily. I was suddenly back on earth again. Whatever connection I had felt towards the guy who just totaled my car- Embry, Megan was calling him- evaporated, and I could feel my anger returning quickly. I wasn't brave enough to direct it at the guy again just yet though. In fact, I was kind of terrified of whatever had just happened- you know 'cause I've got that pesky irrational fear of people and everything. The moment had been so brief that I almost suspected that it never really happened, but still, it left me feeling jarred. I didn't want to glance back at this Embry guy again just yet.

"Megan, are you alright?" I found myself asking again instead.

Her head slowly popped out of the car window- the glass seemed to be missing. "Yeah, yeah, I-" her voice cracked and she looked back up at the guy then back to me. She looked broken somehow, and for whatever reason, I felt guilty. Like somehow I was the one who caused this, not him.

That was enough to set me off again.

"You," I screeched pointing my finger venomously at the perpetrator. I found myself staring into his face agian, but the feeling didn't return. He was just the 'other driver' again, nothing more. Or at least, that's what I told myself. Beneath everything, I think I knew.

In the moment though,I felt my resolve strengthen. "You did this. What the hell? Were you even looking? See that thing up there? It's called a light. When it is red, you stop. People… people die in cars you know!" I was seething, my entire body was quaking with rage. This was too close. My mom's face flashed in the forefront of my mind.

No crying, I reminded myself. Not in front of Megan and a stranger.

Embry seemed to shrink underneath my hateful glare. I had expected him to bite back, to start arguing with me, but he didn't. It was like every word I spat wounded him. And quite honestly, I thought he deserved it.

"I-I'm sorry," he breathed quietly. "I-I was rushing to…"He seemed to lose his voice then, as he choked around some private thought.

"Yeah? That's right, I bet you were rushing for nothing," I bellowed at him. "This. This is not okay," I screeched waving at the destruction around us.

"Please- I- I'll fix it. I- I'm good with cars… No, I'll just buy you a new one. I-" he stumbled to find the right words. His brown eyes gazed at me, pleading, but I wasn't ready to hear him just yet.

"Brynn," Megan said, calling me out of my fury. "Brynn, my leg…"

That snapped me out of it entirely. I felt like I was suffocating again. Stumbling forward, I shoved the boy out of the way and peered into the car. Her leg was wedged underneath the dash, and I could see the blood starting to soak through her pants. Her eyes were wide, as if she had just noticed the injury.

I spun around to the boy.

He was still staring at me wide eyed, completely oblivious to the fact that Megan was hurt. He looked kind of sick actually.

"Call for an ambulance," I demanded immediately. He stared at me for a moment, not comprehending. Then suddenly he was jumping into action- his fingers fumbling for his pocket.

"It's going to be okay," I breathed quietly to Megan. I suddenly felt like this girl, who just hours ago I was trying to get rid of, was my lifeline. If she died, I would break. This entire incident was striking far too close to home. "It's going to be okay," I said again.

Megan whimpered slightly.

"Th-the ambulance is on its way," the boy's voice came from behind me. "Megan… I-I'm going to call Gavin… Okay?"

"Mmm," Megan whimpered again.

"Okay?" he said again.

Megan looked beyond me at Embry, a defeated glint in her eye. "Call my parents too," she said, closing her eyes. I didn't understand the exchange at all, but then again, even if it could've made sense, I wasn't processing things right.

"It's going to be okay," I chanted to myself, more than anyone this time.

The ambulance couldn't get there soon enough.

* * *

A/N Hello again, heres chapter two. Enter Embry. We'll see more of him next chapter.

As always reviews are appreciated (positive, constructive and everything) :)


	3. Chapter 3

I guess now would be a good time to tell you about my mother, before you start thinking that my reaction to the car accident was completely ridiculous.

See, my mom died in a car accident when I was ten years old, seven years before I met Megan and crashed into Embry. So I'm sure you can imagine why she's relevant. Before I get into the messy details though, I want you to tell you a little bit about her as she was, you know, before she was a corpse

Her name was Charlotte Anne Little, before she met my dad and got married. Her black hair was long and straight, she had a little petite figure that fit her perfectly, and her skin held a nice tan in the summer. I used to be jealous of her looks, actually. I've always looked more like my dad with my bland sandy hair, tall stature, and crooked nose. She used to tell me how pretty I was though, despite everything.

My dad was just as much of a jerk back then as he is now. My mom used to fight with him all the time. Play with your children more, get a job, stop drinking so much, that sort of thing. He would never hurt us or anything, but he wasn't ever going to listen to her. Aiden was the only one he ever paid attention to. I'd like to think she would have left him eventually, if things had been different.

I didn't really care that he was a loser though, not back then. It was me, my mom, and Aiden against the world. I was social when she was alive. I had a fair amount of friends, and she used to drive me to their houses on the weekends.

I was happy.

The accident happened on November 14th at 4:09 in the afternoon. My mom worked at the local diner as a waitress, and she had the lunch shift that day. They told her she could go home around 3:30, but she didn't leave right away. She knew that Aiden and I both loved it when she brought us home the pudding that the chef, Lance, made from scratch, so she waited fifteen minutes for him to make a special batch for us.

At about 3:50 she left the diner and got into the car to drive home. Of course, she never made it. A drunk driver rammed into her head on. He was driving on the wrong side of the road, and he didn't even realize it.

We got the call later that day. I've never seen my father move faster than he did when the police told him she was dead. We were in the car an instant later, and he was speeding to the hospital. I don't know what the point in that was. She was already dead at that point. The ME report said it was instant, painless.

Well my father walked into the hospital and started raising Hell. He screamed at everyone in there- the receptionist, the doctors, the random patients walking through the halls. They had to come restrain him, take him to the station so he'd calm down. Some days I think he must have loved her a lot, in his own backwards way. Other days though, I'm sure he was just upset that she wouldn't be around to make him dinner anymore.

They took us to the station that night too, but not before I saw him. Richard Plumber, the drunk driver. He rolled out in a wheelchair, and he looked at us with this look of complete and utter shame.

I have never hated someone so badly in all of my life.

I guess everything after that is history. I stopped going over friend's houses, Aiden gradually changed from loving brother to certified ass hole, and nothing was ever right again.

Happy story, huh?

You can imagine what that crash was like for me now though right? It was like I was there, sitting next to my mom the day she died. I could feel everything the way she felt it, hear everything the way she heard it. And it sickened me. It didn't matter that nobody died, that the worst injury was Megan's leg- that would recover. I knew what could have happened all too well. That's what counted.

And as I sat on the medical bench with Doctor Trayston shining a light in one of my eyes, I was so incredibly shaken. After a long couple of seconds, he brought his hand down and nodded. "Well Ms. Connolly, it looks like you got lucky," he told me. "Other than a few minor scrapes, you seem to be in fine condition."

I nodded, feeling numb as I jumped to my feet. "Is Megan okay? Can I go see her now?" I asked quietly.

"Your friends in the room next door getting her leg wrapped. You can go keep her company if you want," Doctor Trayston nodded.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

Friend.

That's what the doctor had called her. The word sounded weird. Almost... foreign. But I guess it fit the situation. She was sort of like a... friend... I suppose. I had flipped out so badly after the accident, the doctors all seemed to have assumed that Megan and I were close as kittens. I bet they didn't even suspect that I had only met her this morning.

I exited my examination room, and entered the hospital hallway. Glancing around, I looked for the room the doctor said Megan was in. Before my eyes could find it though, they settled on someone else- the guy who hit me. Embry.

My heart constricted in my chest.

When he saw me walk out of the room, he immediately leapt to his feet, agonizing concern etched into his features. "A-are you okay?" he asked immediately. His eyes were transfixed on my face with some intense mix of guilt and worry. It was kind of disturbing actually.

"What's it to you?" I snapped, feeling the anger return quickly.

He winced. "I- I," he stuttered, trying to find his words. His eyes found the bandage on my left shoulder and his composure seemed to deteriorate even further. Finally in a feeble voice he managed to get out: "The doctor cleared you?"

"Yeah he did, now get out of my way so I can go talk to my friend- you know the one who you almost killed? She didn't get off as lucky as I did," I said.

"I called her brother," he blurted out. "He said he was on his way."

"You know her?" I said, pausing momentarily.

He nodded quickly, seeing that he'd drawn a few more civil words out of me. "Yeah. I'm from the reservation, where she's from. Her brother is a good friend of mine. I-I'm really sorry," he said.

I felt my lip curl. I was slightly disgusted at his remorse. It was too similar to the look Richard Plumber wore the day my mom died.

I turned to go walk into Megan's examination room, but his hand caught my arm. I pulled away in alarm- his skin was burning up. "What?" I said, feeling panicked suddenly. I needed some space.

Immediately though, he seemed to sense that, and he backed up. "Can I come in too? To make sure she's okay?" he whispered. I stared at him for a minute, taking in his expression, and waiting for the anger to take me again. It didn't come though, and that shocked me. Somewhere in my core, I wanted him to follow me into Megan's room. I was too seasoned at rejecting people though, to just follow that instinct. Instead, I felt my frame tense.

"It's not my leg that's broken," I said, keeping a proper edge to my voice. "Wait here, I'll ask her."

Before he could say anything else, I entered the room, and shut it quickly behind me. Megan was sitting on a bench almost identical to the one I had been on just moments ago with her leg propped up. A nurse was slowly wrapping some kind of medical tape around her leg, and she was watching it with a pained expression. Even though it was covered, I could see that her foot seemed visibly swollen. She had a few scrapes too, just like me.

"Hey," I said quietly, suddenly feeling out of my element.

She looked up, a gentle smile easing onto her face when she saw me. "Hey," she said. "It looks worse than it is."

"The guy who hit us wants to come in," I told her almost robotically. Suddenly she looked sick, and I found my anger again. "If you want him out there though, I'll be happy to tell him he's not welcome. I'm good at that."'

She just shook her head though, a rueful smile on her face. "No, that's okay. I'm going to have to deal with them eventually," she mumbled. I shot her a puzzled look, but didn't question her. Pushing the door back open, I directed my glare back at him.

"Looks like you've been given visitation rights," I told him through gritted teeth. He stared at me for a moment, looking hopeless, before slinking into the room and taking a seat in the corner.

When his eyes settled on Megan's leg, she shot him a small smile and shrugged.

"Sorry," he said quietly.

"It's okay," she said. I stared at her incredulously.

"You're just going to forgive him?" I demanded. "After what he did? We're lucky to be alive, and look at him, getting away without even a scratch." I was waving my hands around, half frantic.

Embry shrunk into himself, as if he were trying to disappear. It looked kind of odd actually- for someone so big, to try and look so small. It wasn't really working out for him.

"Sorry," he mumbled again.

"Yeah, I'm just going to forgive him," Megan said, looking at me in the eye. She had a wistful smile on her face, and her tone annoyed me. She sounded like she was trying to explain something to a child who wouldn't understand. But at the same time, she looked forlorn, and I felt like I was missing something. Something important. "It's really okay Brynn. Yeah, someone could have died or whatever, but that didn't happen. We're all okay. And Embry is like a brother. Of course I'm going to forgive him."

He shot her a grateful look, though the pain was still there on his face. I glared at him again before he could speak. I didn't want to hear his opinion just yet.

"If my brother almost killed me in a freaking car accident. Trust me, he would not just be forgiven," I said, completely serious. Hell, if Aiden ever dared to disrespect my mom like that- with the reckless driving, I mean- I might just kill him myself.

"Do you have a brother?" Embry said suddenly. "We should call your family. They must be worried."

I actually laughed at that one, and my bitter tone took them both off guard. "Trust me, they're not," I said. Embry's face contorted oddly, like my comment had effected him profoundly.

Before the tension in the room could get any worse though, the door burst open, and another boy, slightly shorter than Embry burst into the room. "Megan?" the new-comer practically yelled. He looked really distraught, and when he saw Megan sitting on the bench getting her foot wrapped, he burst forward again, stepping around the nurse, and crushing her into a hug. I might have been seeing things, but I swore she tried to flinch away from him.

"Jeez, are you okay? Embry said you were hurt. Oh crap, your leg," he started to ramble.

Then the nurse pushed him out of the way. "Young man, if you're going to get in the way of treatment, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," she barked at him.

"Oh, sorry," he said, stepping out of the way. Megan looked at the new kid with an exhausted expression. The exuberant persona that she wore at school earlier today had vanished completely, and a form of detachment had replaced it. She looked almost like she was in pain, actually, and I don't mean from her leg.

"Brynn this is Gavin, my brother," she introduced me quietly. "And Gavin this is Brynn, my new friend."

I looked at Megan's brother carefully, my eyes narrowed with distrust. There was something off here. Maybe it was just my own personal experience with brothers that was sending off red flags, but Megan didn't look that happy that Gavin was there.

Gavin didn't look malicious or anything though. He looked suspiciously like Embry, with the same short cropped black hair, russet skin, and dark eyes. He was clearly younger though. His muscles weren't so bulky, and his joints were knobbier. He had a roundness to his face too that made him seem boyish. I could see Megan in his eyebrows and in his posture.

"Hi," he said, waving at me with a slightly confused expression. Then he glanced at Embry, as if just noticing that his supposed friend was there. "Thanks for staying," Gavin said, looking grateful. "You know, with everything going on and all."

"Just because I picked Jake doesn't mean that you're not my brother still too," Embry mumbled, sounding miserable. Then his eyes fluttered up, and he looked at me, for whatever reason. And there was this look in his eyes, something I couldn't place. It made me feel incredibly self-conscious though.

And for the billionth time that day, I found myself very aware of his bare chest.

Gavin suddenly broke out into a grin. "Oh, I see how it is," he nodded. "Kind of bad timing though, with everything going on right now."

"Stop that," I snapped, at Gavin suddenly. "Don't you realize what he did? He's the reason that your sisters getting that cast put on right now."

Gavin blinked at me, then glanced back at his Megan. She looked really uncomfortable now, almost like she was about to burst into tears. It was the topic of conversation. Something about what the two boys had been talking about had set her off. "Megs," he said softly, looking guilty himself now. Why the hell wasn't he mad at this Embry guy? Was I the only one?

"Okay, I'm done," I said, raising to my feet. And maybe that was cruel, but Megan's brother was here now. She hardly needed me there anymore. Like I said before, I was just her partner in an English project. "I guess I'll be seeing you around at school Megan. Hope your leg heals up soon."

I quickly spun around and exited the room before anyone could stop me. I was half way down the hall before Embry stumbled out after me. "Wait," he cried out, catching up to me in just two strides.

"What do you want?" I sneered, frustrated, spinning around.

He stopped, frozen. Clearly he hadn't thought this through. "How are you getting home, your car's not in working condition right?" he said, his eyes desperate for something. I didn't know what he could possibly want though.

"What, are you offering me a ride home? I don't want one. Not from you at least. I happen to value my life, thank you very much," I spat.

He flinched. "How are you getting home?" he repeated quietly.

I glowered at him for a moment while I tried to figure out an answer. I hadn't thought through my escape plan very thoroughly. Finally, I reached into my pocket and started dialing Aiden's number. That's how you know I was desperate. My heart pounded in my chest as the phone rang. He better pick up. I needed him to be there for me, just this one time. Seconds ticked by at the ringer kept going. Finally, just as I expected the answering machine to take things over, his voice came through the line.

"What do you want?" his surly voice said through the receiver.

"I got into an accident," I said stiffly. "I'm at the hospital, and I need someone to come get me."

"You got into an accident in dad's car?" Aiden responded, suddenly sounding smug. "He's going to strangle you."

"Yeah, what's new?," I bit back, getting defensive.

"Hey, do you want a ride home or not? The hospital's not that far from home. What is it, like nine miles away or something? That's not a too terrible walk," Aiden said. I could practically hear him grinning, and my grip around my cell tightened.

"Just... Can you come and get me... please," I choked out.

"Sure thing little sis," Aiden laughed. "Be there in a flash."

He hung up, and I put my phone back into my pocket. Sending Embry a bitter look, I raised an eyebrow. "See, I've got a ride home now," I said.

"Right," he said, his hands falling to his sides. For a second I thought he was going to leave, but he didn't, instead he sat anxiously down in one of the waiting room chairs, not taking his eyes off my face. He looked to big for the it, his huge limbs spilling over the arm rests.

"Aren't you going to go keep Megan and Gavin company or something?" I said.

"I think it'd be nice to give them a minute alone," he said, watching for my reaction. i looked away from him, thinking of that moment when I first looked him the eye, of that odd feeling that I had felt. I was almost sure he had felt it too.

Suddenly I was blushing.

"I really am sorry," Embry said after another beat of silence.

"Yeah well, sometimes sorry doesn't cut it," I mumbled back.

"Is there anything I could do?" he insisted, eyes pleading. "Your car, it's a mess. I could fix it. My friend, he's excellent with cars. I'm not half bad myself either."

"No," I said, a little too strongly. "I'm sure your insurance company will be hearing about this soon, though." He nodded, not seeming at all bothered by that. I turned my back to him then, effectively cutting off all chances at conversation. I could feel his gaze burning into my back, but I ignored him. About twenty minutes later, I saw a wet green sedan pull up outside of the front door. Hunter Bennet, one of Aiden's best friends, was in the drivers seat. Without turning to say goodbye, I marched out into the rain, and jumped into the back seat of the car.

Aiden's amused lop-sided grin peered at me through the rear view mirror.

"Gosh Brynn, you look like you got run over by a truck," he said innocently. I glared at him, the sound of his howling laughter filling my ears as we pulled away from the hospital.

* * *

A/N Early update! (I had most of this chapter written already actually) next updare wont come so fast.

Thank you to Fari30, JCreader, and the anonymous reviewer me for leaving a little comment. I really appreciate the support. Keep it comin' *wink* *wink*


	4. Chapter 4

"Dad?" Aiden's voice rang through our modest little house. Judging from the look on my brother's face, he wasn't expecting a response. It was about 5:00 now, and so he was probably clocked out napping on the coach. "We're home."

"Stop wasting your breath," I muttered. "You know he doesn't care anyway."

Aiden poked me in the cheek and shot me a devilish smirk. "And on a normal day I'd agree, but seeing as you trashed his car and all..."

"Okay, first off, I didn't trash it. That other guy- Embryo or whatever his name is- ran through a red light and rammed into me. That's not my fault," I began.

Aiden just rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say 'sis. But you know, being a good big brother and everything, it's like, my duty, to the sibling gods, to make sure that our dearest father knows all the trouble you've been up to. Can't have little Brynn running around and getting hurt. We would all just be so crushed," he said sweetly. I glared at him and his sarcasm. I could probably have slapped him right then and not felt bad about it, but I restrained myself. He did answer his phone and pick me up from the hospital after all. Especially since I wasn't sure when I would be able to get my car back, I needed to be on Aiden's good side.

"Glad to see your so concerned," I said, my voice biting but defeated at the same time. He just laughed and shook his head before heading to the refrigerator to take a swig out of our milk jug.

He was disgusting.

Heading to the stairs, I passed my father's snoring figure in the living room before reaching the safety of my own humble quarters.

It felt like I'd been away for years. With a content sigh, I sagged onto my bed and let my eyes flutter shut. It felt so good to be alone again. With a slow shudder I let myself fall apart.

My room has always been my sanctuary, I spent most of my time there, working on homework, reading books, surfing the internet, or doing whatever to keep myself occupied. With Aiden and my dad inhabiting the rest of the house, it was the only place I could escape to when the loneliness became overwhelming. All I had to do was lock the door, and I knew that my privacy was guaranteed.

And that's exactly what I did then. I curled up into a ball and just let the day wash over me. Every ounce of pain and grief and anger spilled out of my eyes. I thought of Megan, about how I might just have made my first friend in years. I thought about my mom, about how I ached for her to come back and to be there for me, even if it was just for this moment.

And I thought about the crash.

That's mostly what was bothering me. My mind skipped to that moment, when he looked at me and everything stopped. It was odd how that was the only thing that I seemed to care about after everything was said and done. I had spent the entire evening seething over the actual crash, that moment when his car collided with mine. I had been furious that he'd ran the red light, that he'd put Megan and I in that sort of danger, mortified that I had almost died the same way my mom had. I had been so furious that I had screamed at that boy over and over and over again. And I had demanded that others, people who were clearly his friends, withhold their forgiveness too.

But now, that I was away from him, and the crash, and the hospital, all I could think about was the way he looked at me when our eyes first connected.

All I had to do was close my eyes and he was right there again, standing with blood smeared on his forehead, his dark eyes- the color of black coffee- staring at me like I was some sort of vision. The memory was so incredibly vivid that I felt like I could just reach out my hand and it would brush against his bare chest.

I felt my cheeks flush involuntarily. I had refused to acknowledge it earlier, but the guy was hot. He had more abs than any teenage guy I'd seen in my little secluded area in Forks, is tousled hair made him look kind of rugged, and of course his eyes. But I think I've spoken about those enough already.

My mind fluttered back over to the feeling I had when he looked at me. There weren't words to describe it.

I was never one to need people. I guess that sort of comes with the territory of having no friends, you know. But in that moment, I needed him. Not in a sexual way, but emotionally. I felt like he was my tether to this world, like if he were to disappear suddenly, I would fall into an overwhelming pit of oblivion.

To be honest, it scared me. I didn't like feeling attached to people because people die and grieving hurts. Badly.

The feeling had gone away though. What I felt looking back at the moment was more of a fear that it would return. I most certainly wasn't flailing on the ground like a fish out of water because he wasn't in the room with me. When I looked at him for a second time, I wasn't left feeling like I had never seen my world right without him there. I was able to be mad at him, and to scream at him like a deranged lunatic. When I separated from him and went into the examination room with the doctor, I felt relieved.

It was just the wake that the sensation left behind that was bothering me now.

That's the thought that comforted me. Currently, I still felt like me. I clearly hadn't completely lost my mind.

The tears dried up eventually, and I was left feeling empty and exhausted. I wasn't angry anymore, at least not at Embry. I wondered if the fury would come back next time I saw him. We hadn't fleshed out all the insurance details just yet. I had his cell phone number and everything. I'd have to call him at some point if I ever wanted to see my car on the road again (I was still under the impression that it could be fixed at that point in time, see). Knowing my temper, it could go either way. I probably wasn't going to truly forgive him, no matter what happened, but I might not completely flip out the way I did earlier. My anger was usually powerful, but short lived.

Sitting up, I started coming back to life. I had homework I should've been doing, but my mind was way too far gone to do anything that required that much thinking. I'd probably just show my teachers the hospital wristband I'd received during my visit to the emergency room and claim that I was too distraught to worry about school work. Teacher's can be suckers, you know.

Just as I was about to go pick one of my books off the decaying book shelf that leaned against the corner of my room, I heard a noise quiver through the door. It was quiet at first, just a little groan. It could have been anything at that point- maybe just the wind hitting the siding at an awkward angle or Aiden throwing his backpack on the floor. Then it got louder.

"What?" the question bellowed through the thin walls.

I wiped my eyes on my sleeve, just to make sure they were dry. It was only a matter of time before I had to go out now, and I didn't want Aiden to know I had been crying.

Obviously my father had awakened.

"Brynn! Get. Out. Here. Now."

I was in trouble and I knew it. Every word he spoke was enunciated, and he seemed wide awake. He sounded incredibly sober, which was unusual for him. That was bad news for me. He was a cheerier person when he was drunk, easier to be with. He must have slept off his most recent beer binge though. It wasn't often that he yelled at me. Most of the time I was lucky if he said hi once a week. I was in for it now though.

With a deep sigh, I pushed the door open.

Might as well get it over with quick right?

My father was standing up in our living room, the television clicker held limply in his right hand. He was a short man with a large belly. His thin sandy hair- the same washed out color as mine- was a mess, sticking up at odd angles. He was wearing a pair of greasy cargo shorts and a crooked white tank top that was stained with all sorts of brown splotches. His eyes weren't blood shot though, as they so often were, and he only smelled of cigarettes, not booze. Maybe he hadn't drunken anything at all that morning. It wasn't normal for him to forego alcohol for a day, but it did happen occasionally, on one of his rare attempts to go sober.

"My car," he said, his meaty limbs shaking in rage. "You totaled MY car"

"I got hurt dad," I said, trying feebly to appeal to his better half- if it existed. I pulled at my shirt collar, exposing the white bandage they had dressed the cut the seat belt gave me. "I was t-boned while driving through a traffic light. It wasn't my fault. The other driver is going to have to pay for all of it. Hopefully his insurance company will fix up your car so it's practically brand new."

He blinked at me, his face turning a blotchy red color. His anger was still building to it's climax. He hadn't quite cracked yet, but it was coming. I guess we were similar in that way- both of us sharing eerily numerous qualities with volcanos.

"My car," he choked out again.

"I'm sorry," I sighed.

"I fed you, I give you a roof over your head, I pay all the god damned bills, and what do I get in return? You crashed my god damned car!" he bellowed. "You ungrateful little-"

His voice broke off and he let out a gurgled choking noise. His arms waved furiously in the air, and he took a step closer to me, his eyes threatening. I wasn't scared of him though. My dad was guilty of a lot of things- drinking, neglect, blatant favoritism. But he wasn't abusive. He wasn't going to touch me.

"I'm sorry dad," I said again, trying to extend my patience a little further. I could endure this. All I had to do was weather the storm, and everything would be fine. I glanced over towards the kitchen, catching Aiden's eyes. He was sitting on the counter sipping a can of mountain dew with his other hand buried in a bowl of popcorn. When he caught me looking, he shot me a wink.

My own anger sparked in an instant, and I was starting towards my brother, my hands curling into fists. I knew he was going to tattle, but for him to watch this like it was some freaking form of entertainment was crossing the line.

"Are you walking away from me?!" my father screeched. I felt a hand grab my shoulder, spinning me around, and suddenly my father was in my face, his sour breath blowing against my nose. I winced as his thumb dug into a growing bruise from the crash, but he didn't seem to notice his grip was too tight. "You know I didn't expect this from you. I thought you loved your mom." He practically spat. "Crashing my car like this, knowing how she died. You are a disgrace to her. A disgrace to me!"

"How dare you bring that up," I turned to him, screaming right back in his face now. "You think I did this on purpose? To spite her? You didn't even love her! All you ever do is drink and watch that stupid television all day. You think that's honoring her memory? Neglecting her daughter completely and only acknowledging her son when he wants to sip a cold one with you? Well guess what hot shot, you think you're alone now? Well in two years, you're going to have absolutely no one because I promise you, the minute I turn eighteen you'll never see me again."

I was breathing heavy, my head buzzing with anger. I watched my father stare at me, complete and utter shock on his face. He seemed to stop breathing for a moment, his lips going from red to white to almost blue as they pursed together. When he finally swallowed my words, he released his grip on my shoulder, giving me a light shove. I had angered him so thoroughly that he didn't even have the mental capacity to scream anymore.

But I didn't care.

I took a lot of crap from him without ever saying a word. I simply would not let him speak to me about my mother as if I had forgotten she existed. I would never be able to forget.

"Go," he breathed. "To your room. Aiden will take you to school tomorrow. You will come directly home when your done, and you will go right back into your room. I'll say good riddance when you leave girlie, but I promise, you won't see an ounce of sunlight until the day you're gone."

I retreated back into my sanctuary, slamming the door behind me. Throwing myself back onto my bed, I curled up into a ball. He hadn't really taken anything from me. His house arrest sentence wasn't so different from my normal routine.

But despite that fact, the tears returned far too quickly.

* * *

A/N New chapter woo! I'm on a roll.

What do you guys think of Brynn's family now that you've gotten to see a little more of them? Everyone seem realistic?

Thanks to JCreader for reviewing :) Oh and also to everyone who has favorited and alerted this story. I appreciate the support.

So yeah, leave a little review before you go on your way, maybe it might just make my whole day (Ha! see what I did there?)


	5. Chapter 5

I had a dream that night about Embry.

No, it wasn't scandalous or anything. We were just together in a white plane. He was sitting across from me criss cross apple sauce with his hands resting on his knees. His eyes looked lighter in the blindingly lit room, and he was looking at me with a small smile on his face. I remember being confused at first. The two of us weren't anywhere specific. In every direction all I could see was an endless impenetrable whiteness. I wondered how we got there, since there was no clear beginning or end to the room. There wasn't even a clear ceiling or anything. It was just white everywhere.

But I remember feeling content, like some part of me would be okay if I never got up from the spot I was sitting. Embry didn't speak, and neither did I, but that was fine. Something just felt right.

When I woke up, however, reality hit me like a freight train. My eyes pried themselves open, and I let out an unwilling moan. Rolling over, I slammed my hand onto my alarm clock, stopping its incessant beeping. My entire body protested the motion. There wasn't a limb attached to me that wasn't sore, and my shoulder throbbed.

It was Tuesday, I reminded myself. I had to go to school.

I almost considered falling back to sleep and taking the day off. The thought of Megan convinced me to get up though. I still felt kind of guilty for ditching her at the hospital short notice yesterday, and, of course, I wanted to talk to her. She was hiding something, and I wanted to know what.

Of course, I wasn't going to go ploughing into homeroom and demanding answers from her or anything. That wasn't exactly my style- personal questions scared me. But, you know, if she decided to explain things to me on her own, well, I wasn't going to tell her to stop.

Twisting off my bed, I got to my feet and opened my blinds. The light streamed into my room, practically killing my eyes on contact. I blinked a few times, rubbing the gunk out of my tear ducts. They felt kind of sticky from all the crying I did yesterday. I made a quick mental note not to do that again. I usually wasn't such a cryer. A few minutes later, I stumbled into the shower and started getting ready.

Now that the injuries had been given a full night to develop, I could see the bruises prominently against my light skin. My entire left shoulder was purple surrounding the cut from the seatbelt, and I had a few random bruises festering in other places. My face, luckily, seemed to have escaped the worst of it. There, only a small cut above my eyebrow showed any evidence of the crash. With a little maneuvering, I would be able to make it look like nothing had happened at all. I didn't want any extra attention because of this crash. The last thing I needed was for people to start shooting me pity looks. I didn't want their sympathy.

So I threw on a t-shirt and a hoodie for school, as well as a pair of jeans despite the fact that it was still a little warm for all the long sleeves. It did the trick though. Everything that hurt was under wraps.

My stomach twisted as I got to the next step in my routine. This was the part when I opened my door and went to join the outside world. Today, it wasn't school that I was worried about. See, I knew my dad would be in the living room. What if he was awake? I didn't want to face him just yet, not after everything I said the night before. It was all too fresh still, and my dad might go off again.

Finally, bracing myself for the worst, I left my room.

Nervously I glanced over to the couch that he usually inhabited, finding that he was still asleep. I let out a pent of breath of relief. His heavy snores practically echoed off the walls. The smell of booze was back, and glancing over at him, I could see a pile of empty beer cans at his feet. I rolled my eyes and proceeded into the kitchen.

"Morning," Aiden sang as I came into view. He was sitting on one of the stools that pressed up against the island. With an apple in one hand and his phone in the other, he looked like the picture of leisure. "Thought you weren't going to come out of your dungeon today after all the fun last night."

"I'm just full of surprises recently," I mumbled, as I poured a bowl of cereal for myself.

Aiden laughed, tucking his phone into his pocket. He was wearing a Portland Trailblazer's jersey, and a pair of mesh shorts. His sandy hair, the same color as mine, was falling into his green eyes carefully, as if Aiden had combed it to do so. In other words, he looked like a complete and utter tool. "I don't know. I could use a lot of words to describe last night. Surprising isn't one of them," he snickered.

I spun around abruptly and glared at him. "Yeah, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that you were watching huh?" I spat at him, a little too loud.

He glanced over at our dad's sleeping form in the other room, the smile falling from his face. "Hey be quiet, you're going to wake him up," Aiden hushed me.

"I don't know why I bother expecting better from you," I said. "Because let's be honest. You are practically his spitting image. Like father like son right? I bet he pulled this crap with Aunt Jessie when he was little. That must be why she hasn't called to check up on him since the day mom died."

"Brynn shut up," Aiden growled, anger flashing in his eyes. I had gotten under his skin, and I could see it. We glared at each other for a moment. The tension in the room was practically palpable. I could see it in his face as he searched for a suitable come back, something filled with venom and hate. I prepared for it too, trying to figure out what next to scream at him. This was our routine see. No, we didn't do it every morning, just every time we had to talk for extended periods of time. That's why I tried to avoid him. Our screaming matches were often worse than the one I had last night.

The sound of a honking horn broke through our concentration.

"Ah, that's Hunter," Aiden said, hopping to his feet, the spell broken. "Now play nice in the back seat okay? Unless you want to catch a ride with one of your numerous freinds for the rest of the year."

I grumbled something unintelligble to myself as I followed my brother out the door and slipped into the back seat of Hunter's car.

The ride to school was short but painful. Aiden and Hunter didn't shut up the entire way. Apparently Hunter hooked up with Susan Gerrard last night, and he wanted to give Aiden the play by play.

It was experiences like those that made me feel better about the complete lack of romance in my life. Sure, I'd never had a boyfriend, never been kissed, but listening to Hunter talk, it was hard to wonder why anyone would ever want some guy's tongue jammed half way down their throats.

Needless to say, when we pulled into the school lot, I jumped out of the car like my life depended on it.

"Come on 'sis, no thanks for the ride?" I heard Aiden call after me. I ignored him though. I had quite enough of him for one morning.

I kept my head down as I walked towards the school. Around me, other kids were going through their morning routine the way they usually did. Chatter of all sorts rang through the rainy weather. A lot of people liked hanging out in the parking lot before school. Lord knows why, it was almost always wet out there. But it was what people did. No one noticed me, as usual. I wasn't on their radar. Usually I went straight to class and brooded in my seat until Ms. Johnson started lecturing. I didn't see any reason as to why this morning would be any different.

"Brynn!" someone called my name.

I glanced up, half in shock. I'd taken this same walk every morning for three years and not once had someone shouted out my name. Then I saw them. Megan was getting out of a brown truck near the front of the school. She waved at me, a half-hearted smile on her face. I narrowed my eyes, wondering what was wrong. Then I saw her brother hop out of the back seat to help her out.

"Hey," I said blandly, walking over to her. "How you feeling?"

"Fine," she said. "You?"

"A little sore," I admitted. Then I paused. "Sorry about bolting from the hospital so quickly yesterday."

"Its okay," she said. Then she glanced over her shoulder towards the driver's seat.

"What?" I began, seeing the look on her face.

Her brother looked up too, seeming uncomfortable. "Hey Megan, why don't we take a head start to your homeroom, give them some privacy," Gavin said.

"Privacy? Privacy with who?" I spun around, hating the confusion, and followed her line of sight, straight into a familiar face. My heart did a somersault in my chest as I found him- Embry- standing there.

"Hey," he said weakly.

"Did you drive her here?" I asked incredulously. I think half of the anger was just a product of shock. But I found it all returning to me quickly. I was suddenly furious with him again.

He shifted uncomfortably under my gaze, his eyes transfixed on mine. He was wearing a shirt today, and it sat smoothly on his broad chest. He looked cleaner than before too. His hair was a little tamer and his face was free blood. I would have been lying if I said I didn't think he looked good all cleaned up.

"I was hoping to talk to you about some insurance stuff," he said, clearing his throat.

"You did drive her here," I accused angrily. "Didn't they revoke your license or something yesterday?"

He winced. "Listen, can we not fight?" he asked. "I just want to talk."

"Yeah, well then talk," I said. "Because I'm clearly not the one who has talking to do."

"My name is Embry. Embry Call," he sighed, looking dejected. "I don't think we had the chance to be properly introduced and stuff yesterday."

"Brynn," I said gruffly.

"Well, um, Brynn, I'm pretty handy and stuff. And I have a friend who has some good tools. If you want, we could go pick up a car from the junk lot, and I could fix it up for you, get it back to working condition. I haven't talked to the insurance agencies yet but your car was older right? So they probably won't just buy you a new one? I know they'll give you money, but I thought it would be better if, you know, I could just get you something basically for free," he said.

He was looking at his feet now and rambling. He seemed nervous actually, like it mattered to him whether I said yes or not. My dream from last night suddenly butted its way to the front of my mind, and despite the fact that nothing technically happened in it, my cheeks flushed and my stomach was suddenly filled to the brim with butterflies.

"And if I said okay?" I prompted, too violently. The words came out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying, and I blushed again. I probably still sounded pretty mad, but I knew myself well enough to realize how big of a deal those words were.

What was wrong with me?

I should be livid with him still. He just drove Megan to school for goodness sake, the day after he nearly killed her! The rage was gone as quick as it had come though, and no matter how much I searched for it, it simply wasn't there. I didn't understand what was going on. See, I was always angry for some reason or another. The emotion came easy to me, but now I couldn't find it. My comfort blanket was missing. I wanted it back

"Um, I could pick you up after school, if you want. We could go right over to the junk yard," he said, his eyes suddenly looking hopeful.

"So let me get this straight. You want me to agree to get into a car with you later, so you can drive me to go look at junk cars because you totaled mine yesterday with your poor driving," I said slowly. I didn't sound nearly harsh enough.

He opened his mouth and closed it again, looking constipated as he tried to fumble for the right words. "Yes," he finally nodded. "That's exactly what I want to do."

I opened my mouth, with the intention of turning him down. I mean, come on, I had to keep some of my digniy here. Even if you ignore the fact that I was completely scared of whatever emotion was currently dominating my conscious, just think about what he was asking of me. Girls, when strange boys request to take you to deserted junk yards to "look at cars," say no and consider buying a rape whistle.

Just as I was about to speak though, a basketball hit me in the arm out of nowhere, right in one of my car crash bruises. Aiden appeared in my periphery, trailed by Hunter and another friend, Luke.

"Sup Brynn," Aiden grinned, though he didn't seem to be looking at me. No, his eyes were transfixed on Embry. "Who's this?"

I glared at him, my fury reigniting now. And oh, it was easy to redirect it at my brother. So easy that it was probably some kind of crime. I saw the way, Aiden was looking at Embry- with his chin up and his chest puffed out. I was just an excuse for him to show up and have some sort of testosterone fueled stare off. It was completely ridiculous, especially since my 5 foot 9 brother looked shrimpy beside the hulking La Push giant he was trying to size up.

"He's a friend," I said through gritted teeth. "Now what do you want?"

"Just checking up on you," Aiden said, cracking me the smile he used when he wanted to pick up girls. "Actually, I don't remember you ever mentioning a friend." My cheeks burned, and my hand curled into a fist. It bothered me that he didn't believe that I could have a friend- particularly a guy friend.

"Well she is clearly okay," Embry spoke up. I think he sensed the way my teeth were suddenly on edge, and for whatever reason, he had decided to help me out. His eyes flickered between Aiden, Hunter, and Luke. "Now we were talking, do you mind?"

Aiden raised an eyebrow at him, a cocky grin on his face. "What 'cha gonna do big guy, hit me?" His voice was loud, loud enough to attract attention. And I'm sure that's what he was after. Aiden probably was hoping to bring this to some kind of masculine stand off that went right to the brink of a fight, but didn't actually cross that line. If he won, he'd probably use the ensuing bragging rights to impress some girl later today. Because let's be honest, there were only a few things in this world that motivated my brother. Impressing girls was high on his to do list.

"If you keep bothering Brynn here, I might," Embry threatened. He stepped forward strategically, placing himself so that he was in between my brother and I. Aiden wavered for a second, and I felt myself turning red.

"Come on Brynn, you can't be serious. This guy? Really?" Aiden said, appealing to me now. Embry would probably looked like a complete idiot if I took Aiden's side. It would've played right into my brother's hands. Now I had a decision to make. Who was I more angry with? I knew the answer to that question before i even really thought about it.

"It's none of your business Aiden. Anyways, maybe I want you to fight him. Maybe I'll even watch with a bowl of pop corn while he beats you up," I said slowly. His expression turned ugly and he was glaring at me. I glared right back.

"Real mature Brynn," he said. Then, looking back to Embry, he spat on the ground. "See you around sucker."

He stalked away, his friends snickering behind him. I was practically shaking with rage now as I watched him disappear. Everyone else in the parking lot slowly pealed their eyes away, realizing the scene was over. I'm sure we gave them all quite a show though. Aiden I would be the gossip of the entire school before lunch hit.

"That was the guy who drove you home from the hospital yesterday," Embry commented quietly, almost as if he was just speaking to himself.

"He's my brother, probably one of the biggest ass holes ever to walk the earth," I seethed. I was going to kill him later. I didn't care if it was illegal or not. I was going to gorge his eyes out with a spoon and laugh while I did it. Or at least, I was going to fantasize about doing that. We all know I'm lacking in the guts area. But still, that's how mad I was.

"Oh," Embry said, frowning.

After a beat of silence, I let out a breath, gradually letting the anger drain out of me. "Thank you, by the way," I said quietly.

"Yeah sure, no problem," he replied, smiling. My heart skipped a beat. He had a really cute smile. "So about later today, and looking at cars..."

I thought for a second, my mind wandering to my dad and the whole grounded thing. "I don't know if I can, my dad sort of flipped out about the crash. I'm not supposed to leave the house," I explained.

"That's stupid though, I was the one who crashed into you. Maybe I could come over and talk to him about it. I'm sure that once-"

"No," I said suddenly feeling panicked. "You definitely can't come talk to him, that will just make things worse."

Embry paused, looking at me for a moment. "You sure?" he finally asked, looking almost defeated.

"You've met my brother. Trust me, my dad's worse," I said bitterly. He looked at his feet as my words settled. He seemed kind of mad and dejected at the same time. Taking in his gaze, I felt kind of disappointed too. Then something snapped. I hadn't gone out once in the passed seven years. I deserved this. Anyways, I was getting a new car for my dad. He could just suck it up if I broke one of his rules.

"You know what? Yeah, I'll come. Can you pick me up here after school?" I asked, feeling rather rebellious.

"Sure," he beamed, grinning.

I nodded and looked over my shoulder. Class would be starting any minute. "Alright, I'll see you later then," I said.

"I'll walk you to class," he responded, not missing a beat. I glanced at him surprised and blushing. "Gotta make sure your brother doesn't come bug you again right?"

I think I mumbled something completely unintelligible in response. He just smiled at me. I didn't say anything as we walked, instead choosing to keep my eyes pinned on the floor two feet in front of us. He followed me through all the twists and turns, walking me right up to the door of my classroom. I could see Gavin inside, helping Megan sit down.

"Guess I'll see you later," he said, with a sigh. He looked like he wanted to say more, but whatever it was, he held himself back. I actually felt it too, like there was something that was missing in our little exchange. Maybe I just didn't want it to end yet.

"Yeah, sure," I mumbled in response. We both stood there for a second, each waiting for the other to walk away first. It was kind of awkward. Naturally, I decided to take the initiative and moved into the classroom, taking my seat in the back corner beside Megan. When I looked back a few seconds later, he was gone.

* * *

A/N New chapter hooray! We got a little more Embry here, and you got to see some more of Aiden as well. Next chapter will feature Megan more than this one did. I know she's sort of a mystery still right now, and that's probably not going to get better in the next chapter or two, but hey! I'm dropping a few hints here and there. So maybe you'll pick up on something... Or maybe you won't.

Hopefully my next update will come soon. I'm writing at a pretty good rate right now, so that's good.

And thank you to JCreader for leaving yet another review.

As for the rest of you (assuming that I have more than 1 reader), hopefully you're liking the story. It would be great to hear what you all think. So yeah review :)


	6. Chapter 6

I wonder sometimes if Megan really knew how much of an open book she was. I asked her about it once recently, and she just sighed and walked away. This span of four or five months were a bit of a rough patch for her, see. Even now she doesn't like to talk about it.

She is just lucky that her baggage was so completely ridiculous. Otherwise the entire school would've been able to guess it in an instant. I mean, let's be honest. When I notice something is up, you know that you are a really sucky liar.

After Embry and Gavin left that morning, you could see her visibly deflate, like a balloon that had just been poked with a needle. She had been holding herself together, see, and the minute her brother disappeared around the corner, she expelled a breath and simply allowed herself to look miserable.

Is it wrong that that moment was the first time I honestly thought we could get along?

"He must have done something pretty bad, huh?" I smiled sympathetically at her as I took my seat. I thought I understood at the time. In my head, I saw her and Gavin and I thought of me and Aiden. That's the lens through which I viewed all sibling relationships. It was the only dynamic that made sense to me.

She just shook her head, her eyes empty. "No, he didn't really do anything at all," she said. Something in her tone was sad. It was like she said the words, knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were true, and that in itself saddened her. She seemed to wish he had done something wrong. As if that would make things better.

I frowned and let the topic slide. I never had much patience with confusion, and clearly whatever was bothering Megan was beyond me. Anyways, I wasn't nearly social enough to start prying through her life just yet.

We fell into silence for a few minutes. Ms. Johnson started class, her shrill voice echoing off the walls and giving me a headache. She was knee deep in a description of irony when Megan tapped me on the shoulder like a five year old.

"What?" I hissed, quietly, worried that Ms. Johnson would catch us talking. My teacher was a nut case, and I didn't trust my mouth should she catch us chatting. I'd gotten into a confrontation or two with her before, and trust me, I knew it should be avoided at all costs.

"Um, so, what'd you talk to Embry about?" she asked me. I narrowed my eyes at her, all worries about Ms. Johnson subsiding. She possibly looked even more averse to this conversation than I was. And that was saying something because I most certainly didn't want to discuss him with her.

"Junk cars and insurance," I shrugged.

She nodded, her lips pursing for a moment. "And what do you think about him?" she asked, choking on each word like she was sticking golf balls down her throat.

"I don't know. He pisses me off," I said. Of course that was a lie in so many ways. I was decidedly not pissed at him, which made absolutely no sense. It was easy to tell her I was angry though. For one, I didn't want this conversation to continue, and second, it just made me feel better. Maybe if I told myself that I was mad enough times, I would be. Then I'd be able to shut out all the freaky new emotions that were bouncing around inside my chest.

For a moment I thought I saw a wisp of a smile on her lips, but she quickly hid it behind a shrug.

"He's a nice guy you know," she persisted.

"Really?" I said sarcastically.

"And he's... cute," she went on.

"I thought he was like a brother to you," I raised an eyebrow. I knew that she wasn't bringing this up because she was checking him out herself, but the jab was too easy. I had to take it.

Megan suddenly turned beet red. "Ew, you don't think... Ung, thanks for that mental picture," she shuddered. "I meant he'd be cute for you."

I just smirked. This was absolutely ridiculous.

"Why are we having this conversation?" I asked.

She just shook her head. "'Cause he is like a brother to me, I guess," she sighed. I stared at her, confused, but she didn't offer any further explanation. She looked hollow.

Being completely oblivious the way I was, I just let it go.

English class passed slowly after that. Megan didn't talk to me and I didn't talk to her again. Actually, there was an awkwardness in the air between us. I felt like I should say something more because I felt bad about the crash, but she, on the other hand, seemed to be avoiding further conversation. It was like she had a checklist of things that she needed to bring up with me, and now that she hit all her points, she could retreat into herself. She didn't even glance at me once for the remainder of the class, and her eyes seemed hard.

Finally the bell rang, and we both hopped up, ready to move on to our next period.

"So," I said, clearing my throat. "I guess I'll see you at lunch later?"

Megan didn't look at me as she responded. "Actually, Jason asked if I would sit at his table again before you got here. I told him I would," she mumbled, her voice barely audible.

I felt my muscles tense in shock. What did she just say? After all of the trouble I was going through to be friendly with her, she was still going to sit with Jason Fredrick? I suddenly didn't feel so bad about ditching her in the hospital. Screw her if she was going to be that way. My face contorted into a very blatant glare.

"Well okay then," I said.

She flinched as if I had physically hit her. "Wait... Brynn," she chased after me, as I stormed out of the room. I couldn't hear her above the sound of my anger pulsing in my ears.

By the time I got to Physics, I was ready to snap.

What the Hell? Didn't she understand how rare it was for me to actually give someone a chance. That accident yesterday had rocked me, but it left me ready to accept her. In my desperation to not have to personally witness my mother's death vicariously through Megan, I had allowed myself to open up, if only slightly. This was unprecedented for me, and secretly, it felt kind of good. Being a big ball of anger all the time had a lot of downsides. One of them being that I intimidated most of the school, so people weren't exactly tripping over themselves to be my friend. It felt good to be liked for once. Or at least, it felt good for the twelve hours that it lasted.

Call me whiney all you want, I thought she deserved every ounce of my spite.

When lunch arrived, I stalked over to my seat in the corner and sat facing the window, just so I wouldn't have to watch her eat with them. I had a clear view of the woods from there, and watching the trees rustle in the wind calmed me a little but. With the anger dissipating though, I could feel the other emotions starting to surface, the grief and bitter disappointment and of course the loneliness.

I shook my head trying to snap out of it. Really were things any different than they were two days ago? No, nothing had really changed. Jason just had a new addition to his clique. It shouldn't really effect me that much, if at all. This was how I wanted things to be anyway.

That's what I told myself.

Absently, I wondered what I did wrong between now and the crash. Honestly, it could have been so many things. Like the way I stormed out of the hospital on short notice, or the way I screamed at Embry, maybe. But I didn't really feel like either of those were the trigger. My mind wandered back to that moment when I first looked Embry in the eye, and the world stopped. What had she been doing in that moment, when I had forgotten about her?

The more I thought about it, the more I was sure that was when the shift in attitude happened. She had went from the perky girl who had barreled her way into school yesterday, to the broken one I had talked to this morning. All because I had looked Embry in the eye.

My stomach churned. Some kind of friend she must have been if that's all it took for her to ditch me.

I scowled as I thought of Embry again. He would be picking me up after school to go to the junk yard. Secretly, I kind of hoped that would piss Megan off. Hopefully, she'd see me leave with him later.

My stomach twisted though as I thought passed that. Something about the thought of being alone with him for an hour or two left me unsettled. And not necessarily in a bad way. It made me nervous about the whole ordeal.

I think it was that moment that I knew that I wouldn't be asking him about Megan. I needed these people out of my life ASAP. They were trudging up too many feelings. I was going to go with him, pick out a car and then be done with it. He could take his time fixing it up if he wanted, and then maybe I'd see him one last time to go get my new ride. After that we'd part ways and never see each other again.

At least, that was my plan.

* * *

When the bell rang announcing the end of the day, I wasn't expecting it. I had been sitting in my Health class, glowering at Daisy Weathers, the captain of our local volleyball team, when the tone took me off guard.

I practically leaped out of my seat at the sound. The strap of my backpack was in my hand and, in an instant, I was half way out the door, the sweet relief of freedom coursing through my veins.

I had forced the whole Megan thing out of my mind, see, when Daisy Weathers asked me my name half way through my Health class. Though, her rejection wasn't far from the front of my mind. I was just distracted for a moment.

I mean, I'd only known Daisy since I was five. You'd think she would at least be able to remember my name.

I was reaching for my keys when I remembered the Embry predicament. The last thing I wanted to do was go out now. The day had sucked so royally, all I wanted to do was go home and curl up in my room with a book or something. I needed to escape to somewhere that wasn't real, some place that I could be someone else and worry about fake problems.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I actually did an obscene amount of personal reading when I was in high school. You'd think my English grade would have been better.

I groaned to myself, a scowl already on my face. Why had I agreed to go with Embry again? Oh right, Aiden.

I walked out into the parking lot, my eyes searching for the hulking Quiluete boy. I spotted him instantly, my eyes being drawn to him, as if by their own accord. He was leaning against a sturdy white pick up truck, his expression looking a little uncomfortable. I didn't blame him for looking a little tense either. People were staring. Probably because he had almost gotten into a fight with Aiden that morning- word traveled fast.

My heart rate picked up against my will, and I crossed my arms as I walked over to him. I planned on attacking this problem the way I did all things: with a surplus of unnecessary animosity.

He saw me when I had closed about half the distance between us, and it was like someone had flipped some imaginary switch. One second he was all lost and awkward, the next he was grinning wildly, his eyes lighting up like a light bulb. I guess he had gotten the wrong impression earlier when I agreed to this because he seemed way too happy to see me.

"Hey," he waved to me once I was close enough to hear him.

"Hi," I nodded back tersely, not bothering to hide the fact that I was a little weirded out. His smile lost a bit of its edge, though it didn't fall completely off his face.

For whatever reason, my stomach dropped a little. Almost as if I was disappointed that his grin had lost its oomph.

"Right," Embry, shifting his weight around a little on his feet. My eyes travelled beyond him, eyeing up the new car. It wasn't the blue jeep that he'd crashed in yesterday, or the brown truck he had appeared in earlier that morning. Now he had procured a white pick up truck. "It's a friend's," Embry said, watching me eye the car. "I needed something with a trailer hitch so I can haul the car you pick back to the garage."

"Cool," I responded, a twinge of bitterness and sarcasm in my tone. It wasn't towards him. I think it was just sort of a product of my day that made me so averse to the topic of cars- and of friends. Of course, he didn't know that, and he seemed to deflate even further. I honestly felt kind of bad about it, but come on, why did he care? My overwhelming negativity shouldn't matter to him.

"Let's get going then," I sighed, as it became apparent that he kind of seemed stuck on his words. "I would like to be home before my dad notices that I'm missing."

"Yeah, sure," he said, snapping back to his senses. "I'll try to make things quick." Pressing a button on his keys, the headlights flashed and I heard the light click of the doors unlocking. I walked around to the passenger's side door, hopping into the car.

He glanced at me quickly, before starting the car. I couldn't quite identify his expression, but it made my stomach churn a little. Again, I found myself trying to suppress a new wave of guilt.

"So," Embry said as he pulled out of the school lot. "Um, did you... er... have a good day at school?"

I snorted dryly. "Really? Is that the best you can come up with?" I rolled my eyes. "I think that's probably the most awkward question anyone's ever asked me."

He didn't look too hurt by my comment, seeming to miss the complete lack of humor in my voice. "Hey, I figured it'd be better than sitting here in silence," he defended himself lightly, a wide smile pulling onto his lips.

"I disagree," I told him. "Silence is much better than having some weird conversation about my day."

The thought of telling him about Megan and her sudden change of attitude made me cringe. Discussing my day was definitely not on my to-do list.

"Okay," he said. "Then what do you want to talk about?"

I glanced at him again, only to find him looking at me, genuine curiosity in my eyes. I felt my cheeks heating up a little. His gaze made me feel incredibly vulnerable. I didn't like that feeling.

"How about we talk about how you should have your eyes on the road," I offered. His eyes snapped away from me, guilt swimming across his face again.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "I'm usually not that bad of a driver."

"Could've fooled me," I said. Almost immediately after the words had come out of my mouth, I regretted them. His expression looked almost devastated.

"I was in a rush yesterday," he tried explaining.

"Yeah? Where to?" I retorted.

"Um..." a small crease formed in between his brows. His eyes looked distant, and kind of sad. "Well, it's sort of hard to explain, but I have these two friends, see- Jacob and Sam. And they got into a really bad fight recently, like the kind that won't ever fix itself. I had to pick a side, and in the beginning, I had picked Sam. But yesterday, I sort of, changed my mind. And I knew I had to go find Jake, but I was worried that if I didn't get off the Reservation fast to where Jake was, Sam would find out, and confront me."

I looked at him, what was left of my anger dissipating as he spilled his guts to me. It was kind of a weird sight, seeing this huge guy looking so vulnerable and so... hurt. Whatever these two guys- Jacob and Sam- where fighting about, it was clearing killing Embry inside. I felt awful for bringing it up. Especially since I didn't know what to say now.

"After the crash, that Gavin kid," I began, my brows furrowing as i remembered their brief exchange. Vaguely, I remembered Embry saying the words: _Just because I picked Jake, doesn't mean you're not my brother still too_.

"Yeah, Gavin's a real close friend too. He's sided with Sam though," Embry nodded, the pain starting to disappear from his eyes.

"Maybe next time, you should just use your phone or something. Let this Jacob kid know you're still buddies or whatever over a text message, and then drive to his house at a safe and reasonable speed," I said weakly, trying to get away from the sensitive topic.

Embry let out a booming laugh. The kind that seemed to reverberate off the walls and seemed to fill all of the empty spaces in the room. I could feel my chest swell with relief. I liked the sound of his laugh. "Hopefully there just won't be a next time," he smiled at me. I gave him a small smile back, and that seemed to amplify his grin even more.

"Can I ask you a question?" he asked suddenly. His face growing serious.

"Depends on the question," i responded, feeling a little guarded. I didn't like personal questions at all.

"Yesterday, during the crash," he started, looking unsure of himself. "You looked kind of... freaked out. I thought you were having a panic attack or something. Have you... have you been in that sort of accident before?"

I didn't respond, as my mother's face flashed before my eyes. I could feel the grief and the loneliness ebbing back into my chest, and I winced slightly. I snuck a look at Embry, to find that he seemed to be holding his breath. His eyebrows were creased again, and a look of extreme concern was etched on his face. And in that moment, I wanted to spill everything. I wanted to let all the pain flow out of me, and to let him try and fix everything.

"You don't have to answer that if you don't want to," Embry said quickly, noticing my reaction.

"_I_ haven't ever been in a crash," I said quietly, restraining myself from elaborating further. I knew my gut was being stupid. He couldn't fix anything. The boy was practically a stranger.

We rode in silence the rest of the way. It only took us another five minutes or so to reach the junk yard. Embry pulled up to the gate and unrolled his window. A kid no older than thirteen was sitting there, manning the entrance.

"Hey Benny, where's your dad?" Embry asked with a smile.

"Out," the kid shrugged. "I'm in charge 'till he gets back."

"Right, well, I'm here to look at some of the cars in the back lot," Embry explained.

The kid then grinned at Embry, a devious look in his eyes. "Well you know, we usually charge a bit of an entrance fee," he said.

"How much?" Embry rolled his eyes.

"Twenty bucks," came the reply.

Embry rolled his eyes, pulled some money out of his pocket, and thrusted it at the kid. When their hands grazed each other in the exchange, Embry's eyes snapped up. "Hey Benny, you're feeling kind of hot," he said carefully. "You sick or something?"

Benny just shrugged. "Pop said something about it this morning, but I feel fine," he said, counting his money. Then he pressed a large industrial looking button, and the gate swung open. Embry pursed his lips.

"Okay, well, if you start catching something, don't be afraid to call me up okay?" he said.

Benny gave him a weird look, but shrugged. "Sure, whatever you say," he said.

Embry pulled into the junk yard without saying another word.

We spent the next half an hour stringing up my new broken down Ford to the back of his pick up truck.

* * *

**A/N **

**Here's the latest and greatest chapter. Honestly, I'm not completely crazy about it. I had some trouble getting the dialogue the way I wanted it. **

**I forget whether I said this yet or not, but this takes place during the second half of Breaking Dawn. This chapter gave a little bit of context, but it's after Bella's had Renesmee, but they don't yet know that the Volturri are coming. So this is like the three month period of bliss before Alice disappears and what not. **

**Also, I'm including some of the extra wolves unnamed in Breaking Dawn (Bella mentions that there are about 7 new wolves at the Volturi confrontation, if you don't know what I'm talking about). I always like it when authors include some of these new characters, it adds a bit to the world building, you know.**

** Gavin is one of these extras, in case that wasn't clear. **

**Thank you to JCreader, fari30, geekchic8428, and ChocolatePotterCrossiant for reviewing. I got 4 reviews on the last chapter, which is currently the record for this story. It means a lot. **

**Keep 'em coming ;)**

**Okay, sorry for the long authors note. Hopefully the next update will be soon :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Embry's Point of View**

I don't think that anything could have prepared me for this. Being one of the first four members of the pack, you'd think that I would have known. I'd experienced it before, through Sam's memories, and Jared's and Paul's and Quil's, and now through Jacob's too I guess. But memories don't really do it justice.

No matter how much you think you know, imprinting hits you like a freaking freight train.

"I guess this is your stop, huh," I said quietly to her as I pulled up in front of her house.

I had gotten her to spend an entire two hours with me this afternoon, but I knew that I couldn't drag out our time any longer. Not today at least.

This was killing me, dropping her off here. It wasn't even because of the apparent issues that she had with her brother and father- though trust me, knowing they were waiting for her in that house wasn't helping my self-control. I just didn't want to leave her. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to force myself to drive away. Sam once told me that when he first saw Emily, it had been physically painful to walk away from her, like each step was driving a knife deeper and deeper into his chest. I secretly thought that he was just dishing me out a load of crap at the time. I know better now.

"Yeah, this is it," she said, shifting a little in her seat.

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel, as she opened the door and stepped outside, slinging her back pack over her shoulder. She glanced back one last time. Her eyebrows were knit together, and her eyes narrowed slightly. She had been giving me that look all evening.

"I'll see you then?" I said quickly, knowing that if I didn't say goodbye now, she'd just walk away.

"Sure," she said slowly, her eyes narrowing further. Then without saying another word, she turned away from me, and walked into her house.

I let out a painful breath, and slowly began to pull out of the drive way. I could still smell her scent in the seat beside me; and I focused on that as I turned the corner, moving so that Leah's car was out of sight. "Breathe Embry," I whispered to myself. And slowly, I could feel my heart rate slowing.

I used to be so good at controlling my temper- one of the best guys in the pack at it, in fact. It had been easy to find things to be happy about before, when everything had been right with the world. And that was the trick to it. If I focused on happy things, the anger would just fade.

Now, with all the pack drama going on, I felt like my world had been flipped upside down. The only thing that I really had left that felt right was her. Brynn. But then again, did I really have her?

Her name echoed around my head, making my chest throb.

God, I was in some deep shit. I needed her to understand, to just feel comfortable being around me. I wanted to know everything about her- her favorite food, her hobbies, her hopes, her dreams. Hell, even her middle name would be a good start. I needed to know why she had flipped out so bad yesterday after the crash. I could see it in her eyes that it was something beyond her totaled her car. I wanted to take her worst problems and make them better.

All I needed was a place to start.

In the cup holder, my phone buzzed. Part of me didn't even want to answer it. I was in a wallowing kind of mood. But I had a pretty good idea of who it was, and it'd be pretty rotten of me to leave my alpha hanging. Mindlessly, I picked it up. "Hello?" my dead voice sounded throughout the car.

"Hey Embry 'sup?" Seth answered through the receiver. So no Jacob then? Well, Seth might as well be him. This wasn't a personal call. He sounded too relieved.

"Nothing," I muttered back, feeling miserable.

"Jake was wondering where you were. Since, you know, we haven't heard from you all day," Seth piped. _He was worried you had switched back, _in other words. I felt guilty immediately, for being an ass to my best friend. Jake was my brother in a way none of the other pack members were- save Quil of course- and I knew how happy he had been when I showed up at the bloodsucker's house yesterday, even though I had been a bit of a mess.

Then again, I did have a pretty good excuse for disappearing for the day

I didn't answer for a moment, as my mind drifted back. I had been sitting in the woods outside of Forks high school- in my human form, of course- I wanted some privacy. I had only gotten a few glimpses of Brynn, when she had been walking in between classes, but those few moments were worth it. Going back to the Cullens to hang with Jacob had seemed pointless after yesterday. I needed to make things right with Brynn before I would be able to focus on anything else.

"Hey Embry, bro? Did you hear me? " Seth pestered me.

"Sorry, yeah, I've been out. I'll drive over now. Tell Leah she can have her truck back," I said.

"You made progress then?" Seth asked quietly before I could hang up.

I paused. Was this progress? We'd talked, sort of. By the time that we were finished up with the lot, she had stopped shooting me accusing looks every five seconds. And this morning, she had sided with me when her brother walked over, trying to start a fight.

I felt a small smile creeping onto my lips.

Yeah, this morning had gone well enough.

"Not that much," I settled on telling Seth.

"Awesome, well drive over and you can tell us about it or something," Seth said.

I glanced over my shoulder, back in the direction of Brynn's house. I could feel the pain returning to my chest. All I really wanted to do was turn around, knock on her door, and hang out more with her. But I knew I couldn't do that. It would freak her out, and she'd probably explode on me again.

"See you in a minute," I said quickly, before hanging up on Seth.

I sighed as I put the car in gear. None of the other guys had this problem. I didn't know what the longest period of time any of them had been away from their girls. They'd never been separated for more than a day, that's for sure. Meanwhile, I'd only really talked with Brynn once, and I didn't know what to do now. She might think it was weird if I showed up tomorrow to see her without a good excuse.

I had to be careful, or else I might scare her away.

It took me fifteen minutes to get to the Cullen's house. Usually I'd drive a bit faster, but I couldn't bare speeding right now, knowing that it would upset her if she knew about it. The stench of vampire hit me like a wall as I stepped out of the car, and I had to fight the urge to phase immediately. If I wanted to see Jake, I had to stay human.

"Hey," I called out as I opened the front door.

"Embry. We're glad to see you're back," Mama Vamp greeted me happily. The vampire woman had been sitting on the coach, her hand resting on Carlisle's shoulder when I walked in. She reminded me vaguely of my own mom, or at least the way she had been before I phased. My mom never looked that happy these days

"Jacob is in the kitchen with Nessie."

I grunted. Of course he was.

Ducking into the kitchen, I found my alpha sitting right where they said he'd be. Nessie was cradled in his arms as he fed her a bottle of donor blood. They both looked up when they heard me coming.

"Hey, what happened to Seth? I heard you were asking for me," I said with a half hearted smile.

"Huh? I told Seth to go run a loop around the perimeter a couple minutes ago. He told you to come over? I only told him to check up on you," Jake raised an eyebrow, a wide smile on his face. In his arms, Nessie reached up and touched his chin. "Oops, sorry Nessie," he crooned to her as he lowered the bottle down again. He had lifted it up when I walked in. She smiled at him widely as her little thin hands clamped around it.

A wave of jealousy ran through my chest as I watched them. I wanted so badly to be with Brynn.

"It's not like I had anywhere better to be," I sighed.

"Things are that bad with her?" Jacob raised an eyebrow.

"She's still mad at me about the crash," I muttered. "I guess I sort of deserve that though."

Jake shot me a sympathetic look. "You know when you're gonna see her next?" he asked.

I winced at the question. Maybe that was what was bothering me the most. Today had gone well, so theoretically I should have been happy, right? Except I didn't know when or how I was going to talk to her next. Maybe thats why it seemed easier for the others than it did for me. Whenever they had to separate a little, they at least had the comfort of knowing that good bye would only be for a little while.

"Aw come on man, you know she'll come around. Imprinting is a two way deal right? So just show up at her high school again or something. It'll work itself out," Jake rolled his eyes at me.

"If I show up at her school again, she might just murder me," I muttered, running a frustrated hand through my hair. He hadn't seen her yesterday when she was screaming at me. He hadn't even seen it through my memories yet.

Jake laughed lightly. "Sure sure, whatever you say," he shrugged.

I glared at him, though we both knew I didn't mean it that much. "I wish I could talk to Gavin," I said aloud suddenly. I clamped my mouth shut the second the words escaped. My voice wasn't accusing or angry, but that didn't stop the smile from falling off Jake's face.

"Nobody would be mad at you if you went to visit them you know. They're still all family," Jacob whispered quietly.

I didn't respond though. I couldn't face the other guys yet. I had basically abandoned them yesterday. They probably didn't even realize what had happened until later that night when I never showed up for patrol. I knew Sam well, and he wouldn't blame me for ditching, but at the same time I knew it would hurt him. And of course there was the rest of the guys- Quil espcially. Damn, Quil was probably dying inside right now without Jake and me.

Jacob was both right and wrong. They were still my family, sort of. But it would never be the same again.

My family was broken.

And of course, he blamed himself for that, he felt guilty for screwing up everything. Maybe he didn't regret doing it- Nessie was his first priority now and I got that- but he still felt bad about it. Really really bad.

"Maybe I will just go find Megan and talk to her alone instead," I muttered aloud. Megan had a leg up on me. Brynn already seemed to care about her, and I was glad for it. She could help me now. Megan already knew everything about us. Usually we were forbidden from telling our families about our condition, but when Gavin phased for the first time, he had been right in front of her. Stuff like that is out of our control. It's sort of like the exception to the rule. Whoever you're around when you phase that first time generally has to be let into the rule.

Megan didn't take it that well actually. Gavin had been worried sick about her for the past couple of weeks. She'd stopped talking to him, and transferred to Forks high via the exchange program, just to get away from the guys at La Push. He wasn't sure what he did wrong, and she wasn't helping him out exactly. I thought it was just a phase though. The whole werewolf thing freaks out even the best of us.

"Sure sure," Jacob said quietly as Nessie polished off the rest of her bottle. "Whatever works man. I still think you should just show up in Forks tommorrow though and try to talk to her again."

I paused. His words didn't really reach me, I was still thinking about Megan. And about Brynn. Maybe he was right. Maybe I should just go barreling into Forks tomorrow and see what happens. Absently I wondered if I could get in on the exchange program Megan was participating in. They probably wouldn't let me. I think I was officially a high school drop out ever, considering they hadn't sent me a new schedule when the new school year began.

"If you can think of a good excuse for me, I might go," I decided aloud.

"I'll work on it," Jacob nodded with a grin. "But come on, let's be honest. Do you think you're capable of going the entire day tomorrow without talking to her?"

"Paul didn't talk to Rachel that day she visited her friend in Seattle," I pointed out weakly, a pit forming in my stomach.

"They were texting the entire time. That definitely doesn't count," he shook his head. I groaned, running my hand through my hair.

"Watch as I go and make everything worse," I groaned.

Jacob just snorted. "Maybe you should just phase in front of her and see what happens. That'd get her attention," he snickered lightly. I didn't reward his joke with a response.

"Hey, you know Keith Redbird, the guy in charge of the junk yard?" I asked Jacob, changing the subject.

"Yeah, I got the pick up truck that I fixed up for Bella at his place a few years back," Jacob nodded.

"I saw his son today- Benny. He was running a fever," I said, giving him a meaningful look.

Jacob sighed. "I'll let Sam know. How old is that kid, twelve?"

I nodded.

"Looks like Collin, Brady, and Gavin will have some more company at school now."

"So Sam's taking the new kids?" I inquired, curious.

"Yeah, I mean, its not like I wanted the whole alpha thing, you know. If Benny chooses to jump ship too, I guess there's nothing I can do about it, but I'll let Sam deal with him until then."

"That's assuming he isn't going to be with us to start out with," I contemplated. It'd be interesting to see where Benny ended up. Would the supernatural laws automatically pair him with Jake because he was technically the official chieftain of La Push now? Or would Sam get him if both alphas agreed upon it? Maybe Benny would even get a choice in the matter. This was sort of uncharted territory.

Jacob just shrugged, not interested in contemplating the idea of new wolves. The whole alpha thing was still a touchy subject, in case you hadn't noticed. Outside, I could hear a set of paws approaching the front of the house- probably Seth. Great now I was going to talk about all my problems with Brynn again. At least it was just Seth. If I was still with Sam right now, Paul and Jared would be having a field day with me- payback for all the times I'd sucked their wallets dry from our random bets.

Maybe I could find an excuse to get out of here. I could go run another patrol lap, now that Seth was done with his. Or maybe I could go work on Brynn's car. The faster it was fixed, the faster I'd be able to drive it over to her house. That'd be another excuse to go see her - though it was going to take me at least a few weeks for me to get it back into working condition. Way too long of a wait if you asked me.

Suddenly, something clicked, and I bolted to my feet. "I'm going to see her at Forks tomorrow," I declared. Part of me wanted to bolt out of the house immediately to go find her, but I guess there was no point in that.

"You think of an excuse?" Jacob grinned.

I nodded.

"The perfect one," I told him.

* * *

**A/N Embry's point of ****view! I was having some writers block with Brynn, so I decided to switch it up a bit so that I could update on time. **

**What'd you guys think about it?**

**I think I have my version of Embry's voice down pretty good- I'm happy with it at least. **

**Thanks a bunch to fari30 for the review!**

**Hopefully the next update will be coming soon :)**


	8. Chapter 8

You'd think I would have gotten in trouble for coming home after Aiden yesterday. It had been less than 24 hours after my huge fight with my dad after all. Any normal kid would have walked into their house after knowingly disobeying a direct order from their parental fearing the wrath of freaking God.

And I did. I walked through the front door bracing myself for the worst, just like you'd expect me to. My dad and I had a horrible track record, in case you haven't already noticed. I fully expected to have another screaming match.

Well, I was wrong. It appears that I was expecting too much from my father. You know what he said to me when I passed him on the way to my room?

Nothing.

He didn't say a word.

Oh, and I can't even tell you it was because I snuck passed him like some sort of ninja. That would have been quite the victory on my part, given that my room was directly in his line of sight from his usual spot on his coach. But nope. He saw me alright. His head lolled to the left and he looked me right in the eye before letting out a drunken huff and returning his attention to the television.

He just didn't care.

And call me crazy or stupid all you want, but that bugged me. It would have felt better if he freaked out. Instead all I got was silence because he didn't think I was even worth yelling at.

Well screw him.

Part of me wanted to call Embry on the spot to tell him to forget about fixing up that car. My father didn't deserve the energy I was putting into fixing things. I restrained myself though. For one, I didn't really want to talk to Embry due to the previously mentioned conflicting emotions I had about him, and two I still wanted that car for me. If I had to have Aiden drive me everywhere for the next two years, I would shoot myself.

Anyways, maybe that was why I was in such a bad mood the next day. I had after all spent most of the night fuming over my dad's lack of a reaction.

And to think I had been worried that my mixed feelings about Embry would be haunting me that night. Ha! If only I was that normal! I was too busy hating the fact that my daddy didn't give a shit about me.

I guess I could have been pissed about a lot of things though. It was a Wednesday still- three full school days until the weekend. Aiden's buddy Frank drove us to school that morning- and Frank was much more obnoxious than Hunter. Megan iced me out again during home room again. I spent most of first period thinking about Embry, since I sort of associated his face with Megan. After second period, I caught a glimpse of Daisy Weathers flirting with Aiden.

See? Plenty of things to brood about.

Then again, when wasn't I mad at something?

My day was still rather uneventful come lunch time though, despite my sour mood.

I sighed as I entered the cafeteria. I couldn't believe that I still had half a day of school left. I just wanted to be home again so I could curl up with some book or maybe even do a puzzle or something. I bought a new jigsaw two weeks ago that I was meaning to break open some time soon.

Those types of stupid little mind things helped when I needed to escape. They distracted me, kept my mind focused on other things. Books were always great when. I wanted to be someone else, but sometimes I just wanted to feel empty. That was when. I started with the brain teasers.

I had to wait though. School was still in session, and I wouldn't dare ditch. I needed decent grades so I could get into college one day. Two more years of warding off the C's and I would have my ticket out of Forks, maybe even out of Washington.

I glanced over at Megan who was sitting with her new friends again. She looked happy, sort of.

Yeah, I needed to get away from here.

I picked at my tray of cafeteria food as my mind swirled with random things and a lot of bitterness.

It was hard to not notice the hulking Quiluete boy enter the room. He sort of stuck out like a giant in a town of dwarfs. My chest squeezed when my gaze landed on him, and immediately I felt very defensive. What was he doing here?

He looked very lost when I noticed him. His eyes were searching through the crowd with a very self-conscious gleam in his. Something in my gut told me that he wasn't looking for Megan.

I glanced over at her, wondering curiously if she had noticed that her brother's friend was back. She had, of course. And she looked upset again. Good, I thought. She deserved to feel miserable.

When my gaze returned to Embry, he was walking towards me, apparently having located my position. My stomach fluttered when his eyes met mine and a wide grin stretched across his face. The lost look had vanished, just like it had yesterday when he saw me. Instead of smiling back though, I narrowed my eyes, the suspicion getting the better of me.

"Hey," he piped when he reached my table. The glowing expression had muffled as he looked around. "Megan's not with you?" he frowned, plopping down across from me without waiting for my invitation.

"Why would she be?" I bit back instantly. Any chance of friendliness dropped at the mention of her name. I was not interested in being reminded about my lack of friends.

"I was under the impression you two were close," Embry muttered.

"Well maybe I told her to butt out of my life yesterday," I snapped. "She's got a new crowd now."

I pointed to her table full of chatting teenagers. She had her back turned to us, but her figure was noticeably hunched. Embry's lips tightened slightly when he saw her. He didn't push the matter though- which was a good thing. I could feel the explosive half of myself starting to surface. Now was not the best time to play 'how many pokes does it take for Brynn to start screaming?'

"What are you doing here anyways?" I asked through gritted teeth. "Shouldn't you be in school or something? You're like sixteen or something right?"

At least that's the age that was listed on his driver's license. He looked older, like maybe a college student. It made me feel better about myself thinking he was sixteen though.

"I dropped out," he answered quietly. His cheeks flushed slightly, and he squirmed a little under my gaze. "I have a job, it was just more important."

Now I was the embarrassed one. I knew it wasn't really my place judging people about their personal crap. Maybe their public crap, but his private issues were his business.

Thinking about it, maybe that was why he wanted to fix me up a new car all by himself. If he needed a money so bad that he dropped out of high school for a job, maybe his family couldn't afford to just buy something used. Guilt welled in my stomach, and my anger quelled.

"And what's today? Your day off?" I pushed, a little softer this time.

He shook his head and smiled at me. "Nope, I've got the night shift tonight."

I nodded, accepting that. "So is this like your personal corner or something?" he asked me, a happy glint in his eye.

"Something like that," I muttered carefully. After a brief pause I straightened. "You haven't answered my question. What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you," he said, growing quiet again. "Don't worry, I'm here officially and everything. See I've got a visitors pass." He flashed me a small paper badge with the Embry's name scrawled across the front.

"Do I look worried about how you broke into the school?" I asked raising an eyebrow. It came off harsher than I intended. He was avoiding my question though, and that annoyed me.

He shot me another easy smile, not at all agitated by my tone. Taking a deep breath, his eyes focused on his hands. "I started working on your car this morning," he started. "It's in pretty bad shape, you know. The original plan was to get one of my friends to help out with it. I can do most of the repairs by myself, but sometimes I need someone to hold a screw for me of help support a valve, that type of thing. I was sort of hoping that'd you'd come help out."

He was doing that thing where he tried to make himself smaller again, just like he was in the hospital. He didn't look guilty or ashamed this time though. Just braced, like he was expecting me to flip.

My heart was pounding in my chest, and my stomach was tied in all sorts of knots. I wanted to tell him yes, I realized. I wanted so badly to smile and say okay and just go with him now. That was so unlike me though. This Embry guy was a stranger practically. I shouldn't feel so at ease with him.

"What happened to your friends?" I asked my eyes narrowing. I could feel myself withdrawing quickly, and with every beat that passed, Embry's shoulders drooped further.

"They're kind of preoccupied with their own problems at the moment," Embry whispered back.

Of course he'd say that. The one thing that I might possibly get. I knew that expression better than anyone. I saw it in the mirror every time I bothered to look. Lonliness.

He finally dared to glance back at me when I didn't respond. It was his eyes that got me. I felt like he was looking right through me, staring at all of my secrets, and I felt like he understood. Like maybe his problems and my problems weren't all that different.

"Alright," I breathed back. And then the moment broke. The look wiped clean off his face and the widest grin replaced it. My heart practically stopped in my chest- unwillingly of course.

"Great," he beamed. "When's a good time for you? I'm ready to start working whenever you are?"

I couldn't find my words. I was too distracted by the butterflies in my stomach. The butterflies that weren't supposed to be there, the ones I'd never really felt before. I didn't like them. They made me feel almost as vulnerable as Embry's gaze did just moments ago. My heart began to speed up as I tried to swallow the feelings, they were making me nervous.

"How long did you say it was going to take to fix it?" I squeaked out.

The broad smile softened as his expression turned yet again. Thankfully he didn't give me another glimpse of whatever pain he was going through again. That might have sent me over the edge. Instead he just looked kind of concerned. He was probably noticing the minor freak out session I was having.

"I didn't say," he spoke slowly. "I mean, I can't really be sure, you know. It depends on how many parts are broken."

"You can't just tell that?" I demanded.

"No, well, I mean yes and no. Some stuff is obvious, like how the power steering cartridge is rusted through. Other stuff I won't know until the engine is sort of functioning."

"Oh."

His gaze was resting on my face still. It was analytical, like he was trying to read me. Well, I had news for him. I wasn't a book. And the longer he stared the more I felt my chest twisting into nervous knots.

"You okay?" he asked, his brow furrowing.

"Golden," I lied through my teeth. Luckily he didn't know me well enough to see past it.

"Right, so when do you want to start working again? You never answered my question," he asked. His voice was quieter this time, and his nerves were back. With his blatant enthusiasm gone, I felt a little better, as awful as that sounds.

"Oh, um, maybe some time this weekend," I said. He frowned for a moment. "If that's bad, maybe next week?"

"No," he cried immediately. I blinked at him. "I mean, er. Week days aren't always the best for me because of work. I was just, thinking- um- something. How about Friday?"

My eyes narrowed again. "Sure sounds good. You'll have to come pick me up from school again. I don't think my brother would be thrilled about carting me over to the Reservation," I told him.

"No problem," he breathed, looking relieved.

I nodded, and we fell back into silence.

"Your lunch end soon?" he inquired.

"In fifteen minutes," I answered. "You can go now though." It wasn't a hint, or an option really; although, I think it came out more like an offer. I was trying to tell him to leave, directly, no beating around the bush. I was already tired from the ten minutes he had been here, and anyways, school was depressing and stressful enough without him here, asking me all these questions about my life. All I really wanted was one normal day in which I didn't talk to anyone and nobody talked to me. Was that too much to ask for?

"No, I think I'll stay, keep you company and everything. I'm not scaring any of your friends away am I?" he grinned again.

I just smirked bitterly, shaking my head. "No, but Megan doesn't seem to pleased that you're here," I pointed, trying to find an easy out. I didn't want to bring up the idea of other friends. Because the minute he asked about them, I'd have to tell him that I didn't have any. It was a conversation I would rather not have.

He glanced over his shoulder, his eyes connecting with Megan briefly before she turned red and looked away. He frowned for a moment. "Wonder what I did?" he said aloud.

"Yeah me too," I muttered to myself. The comment should have been to quiet for him to hear, but his eyes snapped up to mine the second the words escaped my lips. His brow furrowed suddenly and the frown contorted.

"I thought you said _you_ told _her_ to go away?" he demanded immediately as if it was urgent.

I stared at him. "What? I never said anything about her," I denied hotly. When he had brought her up earlier, I had completely avoided his question earlier. I would not be held accountable for whatever false impression I had given him.

"She's the one ditching you?" he pushed further, his voice gaining an edge. He looked angry. Like furious angry. I leaned away back, crossing my arms. He shouldn't even care about this. Megan could do whatever she wanted.

"You're putting words in my mouth," I glared at him. "I wanted her to leave me alone, and now she is. End of story. What's it to you anyway?" I felt myself putting up my full on defense- which meant that I would probably start yelling soon.

People didn't leave me anymore. I left them. It couldn't be the other way around. I don't know why, but it was just better that way, even if that's not strictly what happened. Anyways, I didn't know why she was suddenly ignoring me. It might very well be that I had she was finally listening to the twenty times that I told her to buzz off on Monday. For all I knew, I wasn't even lying right now.

When he looked at me and saw the fury on my face, he calmed down instantly. Guilt replaced his anger. "Sorry," he said, letting out a pent up breath. "You're right, it's none of my business."

"Hell yeah I'm right," I nodded crossly. "Now I think it'd be best if you left now."

The guilt on his face tripled. "Are you sure? It'd be no big deal for me to hang around. I promise, no more freaking out about stupid stuff," he said raising his hands up. My heart started racing again as he leaned towards me slightly, his eyes fixated on my face.

"Yeah, I like having some peace and quiet sometimes, believe it or not," I replied. Yet again, it didn't come out nearly as angry as I meant it. I didn't understand how he could do that. It was like with one look, he could completely erase all of my anger. I didn't like it. I felt like I was losing control of myself.

"Alright," he said, looking almost ashen. "I'll see you on Friday?"

"I guess so," I huffed. His eyes lit up a little more after that, and the anguish wasn't so deeply written in his features.

"Right, Friday then," he said, almost to himself. "See you later Brynn."

With one last nod, he slowly got up from his seat and started making his way to the door. I watched him go, so I caught him every single time he turned to look back at me. A wave of desperate emptiness pummeled into me as he turned the corner. I wanted him to come back, to ignore everything I just told him and sit with me. But at the same time, I didn't. The idea of him returning scared me just as much as it enticed me.

"See Brynn, this is why you never talked to anyone before," I mumbled to myself, glancing at Megan. "You let one of them in, and suddenly the entire world's screwed up."

And now I was going to have to see him on Friday, it dawned on me. Why had I agreed to that? If I was in my right mind I would never have agreed to that. Looking at the sky, I let out a frustrated groan. In that moment, I could have sworn it.

I was going crazy.

* * *

**Whew new chapter!**

**I'm not updating every Friday on purpose by the by. It's just working out that way. **

**Thanks to fari30 and JCreader both for reviewing. Thanks a bunch for the support. **

**And to everyone- let me know what you thought of this chapter :)**


	9. Chapter 9

Embry was late.

No, not terribly late. Not late enough that I was worried. But late as in school-just-let-out-and-he's-not-already-waiting-outside the-building-for-me late.

If I was a normal person, it might not have mattered. But as you can imagine, I was already having second thoughts about helping him with this car. The fact that he'd given me some time to think about escape routes wasn't the most intelligent move in the world.

There was a second reason I needed Embry to be there early though. If I was stuck outside here long enough, Aiden was going to show up. And if Aiden showed up, I had no doubt he was going to bother me.

I couldn't deal with him today. It was painful enough that I had to ride to school with him.

And if Aiden showed up before Embry arrived, Aiden probably wouldn't leave me alone until I was physically leaving the premicies. Meaning he'd most likely be interacting with Embry again, and we both know how wonderful their last confrontation went. I would much prefer not having to scrape the remains of my brother off the ground. He's enough of a bother already when he's not injured. The boy's a bit of a wimp. He talks a lot, and even tries to put his machoism into action occasionally. But when it comes down to the nitty-gritty and he's got a paper cut, it's like the freaking apocalypse.

Moving over to the wall, my fingers toyed with the phone in my pocket. I never got Embry's number the other day, so I'd have no way of knowing if he's gotten held up or not. Glancing back at the parking lot entrance my stomach churned. I guess I was a little nervous, though, I wouldn't have been able to tell you why.

"Brynn?" a vaguely familiar voice trilled through the air. I craned my head toward the sound, only to find myself looking straight at Daisy Weathers. I blinked at her confused as she walked up to me. What the hell did _she_ want? Two days ago, she didn't even know my name.

"Um, me?" I asked.

The girl smiled at me. "Yeah you, you're Aiden Connelly's sister right?"

I groaned. "Regrettably yes."

"Great! Are you meeting him out here before you go home?" she went on, ignoring my tone.

"No, I'm catching a ride with somebody else. If all goes well, I won't have to see Aiden at all," I replied, glaring at her. Go away, I tried telling her telepathically. She didn't seem to be getting my message.

"Oh, well do you know where I can find him? Look he left me this note sixth period," she pushed further. Taking out a crinkled piece of paper from her pocket she showed me Aiden's little love letter. The words '_meet__ me by the parking lot babe I've got something special planned for us later,' _were scrawled across the middle of the page._  
_

I crinkled my nose in disgust. "Okay, I definitely didn't need to see that. Just do me a favor and use protection when you two do the nasty later, okay? I'd rather not have you as my new sister-in-law."

She giggled, apparently thinking I was joking. I wasn't.

The sound of a horn beeping interrupted the clever and unnecessary retort I was about to throw at Daisy. "Brynn!" a deep voice shouted my way. My heart skipped a beat, as I turned and saw Embry waving to me, his head sticking out of the driver's window of his car. When our eyes connected he grinned.

I think that was the moment that I decided I was going to try to be nice to him for the rest of the day. He was just too... genuine to keep being so rude to.

"Oh is that your boyfriend? He's cute" Daisy asked me.

"Um, no," I said, shooting her another creeped out look. Then shifting awkwardly, I sent one last glance at Daisy. "I'm going to leave now."

She nodded. "Okay, well maybe I'll see you later," she beamed at me. I just shook my head, still a little on edge. Aiden was going to eat that girl up and then spit her out like she was a piece of trash. Lord knows what she even saw in him.

Turning towards Embry, I took a deep breath, walked over to the passenger side door, and hopped into the car.

"Hey, sorry I was a little late," he said carefully, scratching the back of his head with one arm. "I got caught up at work."

"No problem," I shrugged, throwing my bag into the back seat as he pulled out of the school lot.

I was in a strangely civil mood for the time being. Fridays were always good for me, and when topped with the fact that Megan hadn't been at school today, the day wasn't actually half bad. That conversation with Daisy didn't even piss me off too terribly. It was probably because I knew she was going to be sobbing in her bedroom this time next week when she realized that Aiden actually didn't love her.

My heart went out to all the girls that my brother broke back then, though I rarely ever spoke to any of them. Maybe it was because he had dumped me too, albeit in a very different way.

"So, was that one of your friends or something," Embry asked, breaking the silence.

"No," I replied a little curtly.

Embry winced, dropping the subject like it was on fire or something. I guess he'd learned his lesson the other day after I told him to beat it in the cafeteria: don't push subjects that she doesn't want to talk about.

"Right, um," he fumbled. I glanced over at him, my eyes settling on his face. His brow was furrowed desperately, as his mouth tried to find the right words. His posture was rather tense too. I could see the muscles in his arms pulled taut.

I felt guilty suddenly. I had told myself I was going to try and be a little nicer, and here I was snapping at him again. I hadn't lasted very long.

With a deep sigh, I forced a friendly little half smile onto my face. "That would be my brother's latest conquest. She's currently under the impression that they're going to get married one day."

The tension broke instantly as Embry's booming laugh echoed off the walls. My smile eased, and I didn't feel like I was forcing it anymore.

"Has she ever met him?" he asked me. "I mean, he was wearing a full basketball uniform the other day. Dude looked like a hard core douche."

I laughed, and the noise even surprised me a little. I hadn't laughed in a long time. Well, that's a bit of a lie. I laughed a lot. But most of my laughs also happened to be rather bitter or sarcastic. Never anything real and genuine.

"He still manages to find a new girl friend every month or so," I shrugged, grinning still. "It must just be his winning personality."

He glanced over at me, a look of quiet contentment lighting up his face. There was something more in his gaze though. Something I couldn't quite peg. I felt a blush rising to my cheeks for no reason whatsoever.

"What?" I ask feeling self conscious. If there was something weird on my face or something, it would only be polite to tell me about it.

"Nothing," he said quietly, smiling to himself.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I'm guess I'm just happy you aren't freaking out at me," he sighed, catching my look. "Is that such a crime?"

"Well maybe if you had refrained from being such an idiot, I wouldn't have started yelling," I said, getting defensive.

He grinned at me. "No being stupid. Got it," he said. I rolled my eyes, and gave a light huff. My fire was gone though. His smile had taken it away. Usually when I started raising my voice, people would just raise theirs back. Embry was different though. I hadn't seen him lose his temper once yet. It was kind of impressive, given all the freaking out I had been doing around him.

"So," I looked at my hands, trying to find something new to talk about. "Where are you at with my car?"

"Ah, well we're going to work on the engine today. I'm trying to salvage most of the existing engine, because buying a new one is expensive as shit. But it's going to be rough because the thing that's under the hood right now is pretty rusty," he explained.

I nodded as he started telling me exactly what we were going to do with it. Honestly, I lost track of it all by the time he got to his second sentence, but pretending to listen to him was easier than talking. He didn't stare at me like he was memorizing every detail of my face when he we weren't really conversing.

Fifteen minutes later, we were pulling down a long driveway, towards a small wooden house. Embry bared right before we reached it though, parking in front if the garage instead.

"Is this your house?" I asked curiously as I hopped out of the car. Embry had taken me here the other day to drop off the car from the junk yard, but I didn't bother asking. It didn't actually occur to me that it might be his place at the time.

Embry shook his head.

"Nah, you remember me mentioning my friend Jake though right? This is his house. I haven't got a good garage like this back at home- mom can't afford it. Jake gave me permission to use all his stuff to fix up the car and everything. It'll go faster this way," he explained. With his right hand he reached down and pulled the door open, revealing a square little room filled with all sorts of tools. My car was in the middle naturally, and the hood was propped up, so that all of its intermechanics were exposed. "After you," he smiled at me.

Awkwardly, I stepped into the garage and walked over to the front of it, while Embry went to turn on the lights. Now that he was out of the car, I found myself getting a better look at him. He seemed kind of messy, if that makes sense. When I saw him on Wednesday, his hair had been neat, and he'd been wearing a smooth green t-shirt. Today, his hair was tousled, sticking up in some places. He wore a shirt that must have been white at some point, but was now streaked with all sorts of dirt stains. His cargo shorts were slightly frayed at the end too. I guess it was sort of like the just-rolled-out-of-bed look to the extreme. Maybe, if you wanted to stretch it, you could call it a just-finished-running-around-in-the-woods-look.

It fit him though. He totally seemed like that sort of athletic woodsy guy.

"I brought in that chair for you earlier," Embry told me, pointing towards the tool bench. "You can just chill until I need you."

"Sure," I mumbled, taking a seat. I watched him as he leaned over the car and began working. His white shirt was pretty thin, and I could see his back muscles moving underneath it as he tinkered with screws and gears and such. I'm not going to tell you I wasn't enjoying the view.

Time passed. I helped him take the engine completely out of the car so that he could work on fixing up all of the little parts on a table he had set up off to the side. We didn't talk much, other than what was necessary. It was a comfortable silence though. I liked watching him work- he was so engrossed in the whole thing.

"So, your parents want you home by a specific time?" Embry asked casually after a while. I glanced at the clock. It wasn't terribly late or anything. The clock was only just pushing five.

"Nope. My dad still hasn't noticed that I ignored his house arrest sentence the other day. I'm pretty sure I could come home at three in the morning jacked up on all sorts of drugs and he wouldn't even care," I shrugged.

The muscles in his back tensed suddenly, as he threw a screw into a bucket off to the side. "What about your mom?" he mumbled quietly.

"My mom isn't around anymore," I cut in, maybe a little too harshly. There was an edge of bitterness in my voice- which was good. It hid the grief rather well, if I do say so myself. And also clearly labeled the mom subject as another red zone. Hopefully he wouldn't bring it up again.

"Oh... I'm sorry," he said, not quite knowing how to respond to that. I pulled my legs to my chest, and glared at him. Yeah, everyone was just so god damned sorry about what happened. They were so sorry, but they never cared enough to do anything more than say so. My mom had over 300 people come to her funeral.

I don't think that I've seen half of them since.

"I don't know who my dad is," he kept going, apparently not ready to drop the topic. He had stopped working completely now, and was staring at me. His eyes were filled with a familiar twisted pain. And I wasn't sure for a moment whether it was his own, or rather mine, being reflected at me. "My mom used to tell me stories about him, you know. About how great he was. Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome. But I don't know who he is. She's never even told me whether he died or not. Or maybe why he left her. He's just her knight in shining armor. No if's and's or but's about it. "

I felt my heart clinch. I never asked him to tell me that.

"Oh," I found myself saying. Then, with a rather wry glint in my eye, I imitated his earlier statement. "I'm sorry."

He leaned back against the car, a smile tweaking at his lips. "Guess that doesn't really help things huh," he sighed.

"No, not really, but I think it's mostly because people aren't actually that sorry. They're just saying it so that they don't sound horrible," I agreed.

"I think maybe they're trying to sympathize with you. What else can you expect them to say?" He shrugged.

"I'd rather they said nothing. I don't want people's pity," I stated vehemently. He frowned, biting his lip a little. "What are you looking at me like that for? You disagree?"

"No, I hate it when people pity me too. I just think sometimes people might actually care. There's a difference between pity and sympathy," he said.

"I never said I didn't think anybody cared," I snapped. "People can care. But if they do care, they don't say they're sorry and then never show their face again. If they really care, then they won't tell you their freaking sorry. Because they don't have to."

I was irritated now. My blood was starting to hit its boiling point. I had to believe that people still could cared, see. The memory of my mom was undeniable proof that unconditional love existed, of course, but I needed to believe that it could be recreated. That somewhere out there, someone could be more than sorry.

Embry rocked on his toes, a million words swimming through his eyes. I could tell that he wanted to say something more, something that would undoubtably set me off, but he stopped himself, thankfully.

Cracking a grin, he crossed his arms. "Note to self, don't tell Brynn that you're sorry. She doesn't appreciate it," he said. I rolled my eyes at him, my icy glare still trained on his face.

"Feel like handing me the Phillips screw driver?" he asked, sending me yet another smile. It was his eyes that broke me. Him and his unnerving stare again. I swear I couldn't look at him for more than two seconds without my innards doing all sorts of crazy things.

"Here," I thrusted the tool at him. His eyes lit up as he saw my anger dissolve. I didn't miss the lines of deep relief in his face.

As he started back on the car, he began talking about the different repairs he was doing again. We fell back into the easy rhythm we were in before, and didn't speak of anything substantial for the rest of the day.

* * *

**A/N Sorry for the late update. It's been a bit of a crazy week. Luckily I'm not too too late though. Only like a day. And I delivered a chapter with a substantial amount of Embry Brynn interaction so hooray for that.**

**Thank you to sugarishfreak, ChocolatePotterCrossoint, fari30, and Voldyplant for the reviews (Can you believe it? That's four on one chapter!). The answer to all questions will be revealed with time.**

**Maybe we'll get five this chapter? *excitedly crosses fingers* :P **


	10. Chapter 10

Two weeks passed by rather quickly, as life returned to some semblance of normality. I saw Embry six more times to work on the car. Honestly, I was kind of leery about coming over so much when he first suggested it. I didn't like hanging around him- well that's a lie. I actually did like working in that stupid garage. But I didn't like that I liked it. If that makes sense.

He told me though that the more I came over the faster it'd get done though. And really, there was no arguing with that.

So after that first Friday we met up again on Sunday and again on Wednesday. That was sort of the schedule now I guess because the cycle repeated the following week. Nothing too exciting had happened during that time span. Well, Embry almost stabbed himself with a screw driver on the second Wednesday, and it was pretty freaking hilarious- don't worry he was fine. But you know, other than that, everything was just normal. Just two teenagers hanging out in a garage.

School had normalized too. Megan hadn't talked to me since that morning after the crash, so I was able to settle into a routine of solitude again. The only human being that I had to interact with regularly was Daisy, Aiden's now girlfriend. It wasn't like she was sitting with me at lunch or anything. After school when I was waiting for Embry to pick me up on Wednesdays and Fridays, she'd just walk over and start bubbling to me about Aiden. I had almost snapped at her twice now to go away, but the better half of me had won out. Aiden's longest relationship prior to Daisy had lasted a month and four days. Daisy had an expiration date on her. I could deal with her for a little while longer.

It was Saturday now- the best day of the week. I didn't have to leave my room on Saturdays. My father usually left to go hit the bar around noon, and so I wouldn't have to deal with him. Aiden almost always had plans all weekend. And I, was free to spend the day doing whatever I wanted.

Today my activity of choice was to get through a few more chapters of my latest John Grisham book. I was getting to the climax of the novel the other day, and had been itching to sit down for a few hours and finish it.

I was right in the middle of the best part when I heard the front door swing open and thud shut, cutting into my concentration. Ten seconds later I a furious fist was pounding on my room's door.

For a second my heart skipped a beat. My father never did this. Someone must have died for him to be busting through the entrance to my room.

"Brynn!"

And just like that my worry washed away. That voice, beyond any doubt, belonged to Aiden. It's kind of funny actually. All it took was hearing the sound of his voice and suddenly I was pissed.

"The door is unlocked," I snapped at him before he punched a hole through it.

Roughly, it swung open. Naturally the first thing I noticed was that he was wet. Like soaking wet. Maybe that shouldn't sound so strange because Forks was never really dry, but see Aiden had this bizarre aversion to all things dirty. When he was little he was totally that kid who sat inside while all the other boys rolled in mud because he didn't want his new toys to get scuffed. I once saw him sock a freshman in the jaw for accidentally flinging a particularly ketchup-y french fry at Aiden's shirt.

So the fact that he was wet- hair, shirt, shorts, shoes, socks and all- was the first red flag.

"We need to talk," Aiden said through gritted teeth as I glared at him.

"If you're implying that I had something to do with this, I hate to break it to you, but I didn't. Although I kind of wish I had," I said gesturing to his dripping form.

His face, if possible, went even whiter than before.

"Do you know where I was today?" he asked.

"Fork's swimming pool?" I guessed, smirking at him.

"No, there aren't any swimming pools in Forks," he practically screamed.

"Maybe the aquarium then?" I kept going, enjoying myself maybe a little too much.

He sent me the biggest death glare, but managed to keep what was left of his cool. He was the one who wanted to talk to me after all. Not the other way around.

"I was at La Push with my girlfriend actually," he seethed. "And we were walking along when we ran into some guys."

"You went to the beach in basketball shoes and socks?" I raised an eyebrow. He really was ridiculous.

"Some guys who were talking about you," he ignored me.

Now he had my attention and he knew it. I only knew so many people down at La Push. In other words, I pretty much only knew Megan and Embry. But Megan wasn't a guy, so clearly she wasn't who Aiden was talking about.

"And?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I heard you were dating that guy. The one from the parking lot the other day," Aiden yelled.

Really? That's what this was about. It was none of his business what I did with my time. And for the record, I wasn't dating Embry, but that didn't even matter. If I was, it would have been on my prerogative. He had no right to come barging in here and start screaming at me about this. Especially when he barreled through girls like they were peices of meat.

"What's it to you," I snapped at him, sitting up now. "I don't keep a running tab on all of your girlfriends."

"So you are dating him," he accused furiously.

"Like I just said it's none of your business," I glared back.

"Like hell its none of my business. After I heard those guys mention your name I walked over there to see how they knew you, you know, like any decent big brother would. And you know what they told me? To go mind my own business," he cried out exasperated.

"Kind if like I'm telling you now," I pointed out.

"Well wait, I haven't gotten to the best part yet. That's when your boyfriend shows up, walking around with another guy like he freaking owns the entire beach. Idiot recognized me and came over, asked what I was doing. Like I was doing something wrong!" he kept going.

"Well odds are you were doing something wrong. So stop whining about it and get out of my room." I could see the scene in my head clearly now. If Aiden really meant what he was saying, maybe it would have been sweet. But see Aiden didn't do anything unless there is some kind of benefit in it for himself.

I don't know why a few random guys were gossiping about me in the first place, but really that wasn't anything too new. In Forks, everyone was the center of conversation at some point or another. I bet it was just some of Embry's friends who had heard he was spending some time with someone new. I'd seen dating rumors start with less evidence.

Aiden was probably walking down the beach, trying to convince Daisy to drop her pants, or something to that effect, when he'd heard my name. Then in an effort to come off as the hero he would have told Daisy to wait there while he walked over like a big shot. Embry would have been kind of edgy when he saw Aiden. He'd heard me talk about my brother enough times to know that he was a jerk. Hell, he'd even seen him in action once. Oh yeah, this was definitely my brother's fault.

"He pushed me. The asshole got into my face and shoved me into the ocean," Aiden shouted, his pale face going red. "I had to cut my date short and everything because of him."

"And you are completely blameless here. You didn't start anything or say something stupid," I shot back. "Embry isn't a bad guy. He's helping me fix up a new car, to replace the one that got totaled."

"Oh so you're defending him now? I thought you hated people. You think he's some kind of prince now huh? We'll see how happy you are when he dumps you," Aiden sneered.

My heart was beating in my ears now as I rose from my bed.

"You idiot, he isn't my boyfriend okay? So he can't dump me because we aren't a thing. He is just being a decent friend. And I am allowed to have friends aren't I? Or are you going to forbid me from ever leaving the house again?" I asked wryly. Aiden just stared at me, fuming. So I kept going. "I've got news for you. You don't own me okay? You can't just use me to impress your girlfriends when its convenient. I suggest you leave. Now."

Before he could say anything else, I slammed the door in his face. My fists sere clenched tightly and I could feel my shoulders quaking. I just wanted to leave. Leave my dad and my brother and never come back. That wasn't really an option though. Stupid guardianship laws. I wasn't eighteen yet.

So instead of walking out of the house, hopping on a train, and never coming back, I grabbed my phone and instinctively started picking through the contacts. Embry's number was easy to find, being that the list was so short.

"Hello? Brynn?" Embry picked up on the second ring.

"Embry?" I asked, my voice sounding murderous. He miss took my anger though.

"Listen I'm really sorry about Aiden," he started bumbling. "He showed up on the beach today and was talking to Jared and Paul. He just sort of got in my face and he was saying stupid shit, and I- I just-"

"Push him harder next time," I interrupted him.

There was a small beat of silence before laughter erupted from the other end of the line. And suddenly, I felt my mouth twitching into a small smile too.

"Yeah sure," he said. "I'll give him a good shot in the temple next time, if you want. Maybe it will knock some sense into him."

"I doubt it," I sighed.

He paused again. "You want to talk about it?" he asked quietly.

"No," I said, maybe a bit too firmly.

"Well okay," he mumbled back.

I didn't really know what to say next. I didn't think this far into the conversation. I had just called him because... well, it felt right I guess.

"You wanna come over?" he suddenly blurted out on the other end of the line.

"What?" I blushed.

"To the beach. There's a bon fire tonight. It could be fun. You know, get away from your brother for a bit," he elaborated. "If you don't want to that's totally fine. I just thought that, you know, you could use a bit of a distraction."

I closed my eyes, imagining him doing that thing, where he tried to make himself shrink.

"Okay," I said, knowing I'd probably regret the decision later. In the moment, all I knew was that going would piss Aiden off terribly and after that scene I just needed to piss him off some more.

"Okay?" Embry repeated sounding shocked.

"Yeah, okay," I nodded meekly, feeling a little sick.

"I'll come pick you up then?" He asked.

"Yeah sure," I nodded.

"Okay I guess I'll see you in a few," he said.

"Yeah, in a few," I muttered in response.

"Bye"

"Bye"

The line stayed silent for another moment before I heard the click of him hanging up. My heart was racing wildly. It was a Saturday night, and I had plans.

I guess there really was a first for everything.

* * *

A/N Sorry for the late update, I had a hectic week. This chapter was a little bit short and kind of unedited but I wanted to get it up ASAP, so you'll have to excuse me if its really bad. On the bright side, things are actually starting to get rolling now.

Thank you to Bassoon, ChocolatePotterCrossaint, PeanutCookies:D, and the anonymous guest for reviewing. The last chapter got four reviews also and I'm super thrilled about it. Hopefully this one does just as well ;)

Hopefully I'll get the next update in soon.


	11. Chapter 11

This was a bad idea. I hated being around people. The entire problem with Aiden was just a part of the bigger issue that I hated just about everyone. Thinking that going to some big ass party to get my mind off my brother was just bad logic. I could feel it already in my gut. This night wasn't going to end well.

"Relax," Embry let out a nervous laugh. "You look like you're going to kill someone."

He had picked me up from my house five minutes ago, and was currently driving west bound towards First Beach. We'd probably be there soon.

"I might kill someone," I answered, crossing my arms even tighter.

He smiled, though he looked a little uncomfortable. Actually, he looked worse than I did. His knuckles were turning white as he gripped the steering wheel, and his left leg was bouncing incessantly. Even his eyes were a little distant; although, he seemed to be taking acute care still with his driving- for my benefit, I'm sure.

"Nobody's going to eat you," he smiled a little.

"I'll calm down when you do," I shot back defensively. "You look like you're going to puke."

He shook his head. "Well maybe I might puke," he muttered, imitating my tone. His expression said he was joking, my gut told me he wasn't.

"Way to instill a feeling of confidence in a girl," I deadpanned sarcastically.

He sighed. "I'm just a little nervous alright?" he admitted. "The bon fires used to be a weekly thing for me and my friends. I haven't been to one since I ditched Sam."

"Is this Sam guy going to be there?" I asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"Yup," he nodded. "Him and all the other guys who sided with him. The beach is sort of like their turf."

"And what, you're worried they're going to shoot you or something for breaching into their territory. You make it sound like you're in a freaking gang war," I snorted.

He smiled at that one. "No, I guess I'm just... worried... about how they'll react. They're not going to tell me to leave or anything. The bon fire has an open invite. The tribal elders would love it if they could get the entire reservation down to the beach to hear all the legends and stuff, not that the entire res would ever come. I bet all the adults will be thrilled I'm there," he explained. I still didn't really get it. Embry made it sound like they were all like brothers. If that was true, there shouldn't be much to worry about. Although, on second thought, given my experience with brothers, maybe there was a lot more to fret about than I originally thought.

"You'll understand when we get there," he shook his head.

"Is your Jacob friend coming?" I inquired out of idle curiosity.

He shook his head. "He thought it'd stir up too much drama if he showed up. And he sort of wanted to babysit for a friend tonight. It'll just be me and Seth, I think, from our half of the split. Sam's got a lot more guys than Jake though. I bet his entire- er- group will be there," he said.

I nodded shrugging. I could see the beach coming up ahead. We'd be there in a second.

"Last chance to turn around," I told him, hopeful that he'd listen.

Instead he just shot me a shaky smile. "I've got to do this while you're here," he said. "I think it'll help having you there to help ground me." He paused, his cheeks turning red as he realized what he just said. "You know, since you're from the outside."

"Right," I said, narrowing my eyes at him. He looked away from me as he turned off the car. I had noticed, over the past few weeks, that he did that sometimes- said things in this off-handed way that seemed to imply... stuff. It made me feel uneasy when he did that. My stomach would flutter, and my heart would constrict, and I would feel a pit forming in my core. A really scary pit. I tried to ignore it though. My car would be finished eventually, and then Embry and I wouldn't have a reason to talk anymore. I would move out of Forks, and never see him again. Things could just return to normal.

I could use some more normality in my life, thinking about it. I really thrived on routine.

"Looks like we're here," he announced, quickly hopping outside. I followed, taking my time as I stepped out into the crisp air. I probably should have brought a second jacket. It'd no doubt get colder when the sun started to set.

"Where is everybody?" I asked, looking around. The beach looked deserted, not a single soul in sight.

"We're gonna meet Seth here, and then walk over together," Embry explained. "The bon fire should be just around that bend."

I nodded and the two of us stood there kind of awkwardly for another five minutes waiting for this Seth kid to show up. Embry was a pretty open book. I could see him freaking out, despite the calm aura he was trying to put out. I was hit with a sudden urge to touch his shoulder or something. You know. Comfort him.

But of course I was never going to actually do _that. _It'd be super weird. Instead I just smirked bitterly at him. "Hey if worst comes to worst, you can always come chill in the back corner and glare at everyone with me. I promise, I have no plans to start fraternizing with the enemy, being the social butterfly that I am," I said.

He looked up at me with that expression again. The one that he had given me when I first saw him. My stomach churned. "I'm going to hold you to that," he said.

"You can try," I shot back. He grinned widely, a new spark in his eye. It rather looked like I had successfully cheered him up. Weird.

Not even a minute later Seth showed up in the parking lot. The boy didn't come in a car though. He trotted towards us from the road, apparently having walked here. He had almost the same exact build as Embry. The same dark short-cropped hair, tanned skin, and toned muscle. He was slighter than Embry though, maybe a couple inches shorter and lankier. He had a huge smile on his face as he approached, and a pair of dimples that made him look boyish. He wasn't wearing any shirt, or shoes for that matter. He looked like someone who had a lot of friends. Like that guy that everybody loved.

So basically my first impression was to run like hell.

"Hey Embry," Seth shouted cheerily. "You never said you were bringing company."

"It was kind of last minute. Um Brynn this is Seth. Seth this is Brynn," he introduced us. I stared at the boy feeling very leery about this whole thing. If this was how bad meeting Embry's real friends was going to be, the rest of the night seeing all of Embry's sort-of-ish friends was going to be painful.

Just think of Aiden, I told myself. Think of the look he would have on his face if he knew you were here.

"So you're the girl whose car Embry totaled, right?" He asked, grinning. I nodded awkwardly. "Well its nice to finally meet you. Embry's kind of been flipping out about the entire thing. He's a bit of a drama queen." He was beaming at me now, and his dimples were becoming more distinct, making him look even younger.

"I would have been flipping out too if I were him. I was ready to march up to the court house and demand his licence be revoked," I mumbled, shoving my hands into my pockets.

Seth laughed, not realizing that I was being dead serious. At one point, I had even written down the numbers of a few good civil suit lawyers in case I needed them. Embry shot me a sheepish look, shrugging a guiltily. I shifted around uncomfortably for another moment while I waited for someone to start talking about something else.

"Come on pup, let's go crash Sam's party," Embry elbowed Seth, when his eye caught mind.

Pup? That was a bit of a weird nick name. But it fit Seth I guess. Absently, I wondered how old the kid was. His height suggested maybe nineteenish, but his demeanor seemed younger. He probably could have got along great with some high school freshmen.

Embry fell into step beside me as Seth bobbed along a little in front. Glancing over at Embry, it was like I could feel his reluctance weighing in my own gut. Seth seemed a little jittery too, but whatever nerves he was carrying were nothing compared to this... dread I could feel from Embry. The weirdest part was that Seth didn't seem to notice it. He was completely oblivious to Embry's reluctance. And I was supposed to be the unsocial one.

I narrowed my eyes at Embry and stared hard, trying to pick his expression apart. My complete lack of people skills were getting on my nerves now. I wanted to know what the Hell was so bad about this bon fire.

Ahead, I could see the crowd getting bigger. Embry was right, once we rounded the curve in the coast, we were more or less just a football field away from the fire pit.

Now I was the nervous one. There must have been at least twenty people there already, and I could see some more walking down from the parking lot at the upper edge of the sand. My heart was thumping heavily in my chest.

I should have stayed home with Aiden.

At the edge of the bon fire, I could just make out the details of another familiar muscular Quilluete boy. He had been picking up a log from the sand close to the ocean when he looked up and spotted us. His frame stopped immediately and I heard him shout: "Seth?"

In front of us, Seth practically jumped at the sound of his name. His bad case of the jitters getting suddenly worse. "Gabe?" he responded with a grin.

I stopped walking immediately. Gabe? As in Megan's brother, Gabe? He was here? Was Megan here? My eyes darted towards the crowd of people. Half of them had turned at Gabe's shout, but I couldn't find Megan among them. That didn't mean she wasn't being blocked by someone, or that she wasn't coming. I had to get out of there right now.

"Embry, I've got to go," I hissed.

"What? No," he wheeled, grabbing my wrist to stop me from turning. I ripped away from his touch instinctively; although, his grip was pretty gentle. My severity was sort of a huge over reaction. He winced, dropping his hands to his side.

"I... I've got to go back home. I just remember I have a thing. I'll see you tomorrow for the car," I babbled.

"Wait, come on," he breathed looking over his shoulder at Seth who was jogging over to Gabe. "You don't even have a ride home. Just... Give me an hour. Can you stay with me for just an hour?"

His eyes bore into my face with this expression of sheer panic, like if I left he might just have a mental break down. "What? So I can help you face a bunch of huge ass guys that you apparently seriously pissed off? No thank you," I shook my head.

"Come on, don't tell me you're afraid of them now. You were perfectly fine with it in the car. What? Is it Gabe? Or... Oh its Megan isn't it. She usually keeps to herself at these things. We don't even have to say hi to her if you don't want to," he pleaded.

I glared at him because he read me like a blinking neon sign. He had a bit of a point though earlier- he was my ride. I didn't have much of a choice.

"One hour," I grumbled.

His face flooded with relief before taking a deep breath, and spinning around. Seth was talking to Gabe now, still on the outskirts of the bonfire area, and a few people were staring. No one had dared to step closer though. Embry took the lead, moving towards the larger group in the bon fire circle.

I noticed that the second Embry started heading over to the main group, so did Seth and Gabe. I had a feeling that Seth wouldn't be straying too far from us for the night.

Another huge muscular guy stepped out to meet us as we approached the group. This one was bigger than Embry, with a thinner face. He was wearing a hoody with the sleeves cut off, and had a girl practically attached to his side. Their hands were intertwined, and it was hard to miss how they seemed to move as if they were one unit.

"Embry, you didn't tell us you were coming," the guy said with an easy smile.

"Thought we'd surprise you guys. You know, make a scene," Embry smiled back. After a brief kind of awkward pause he added. "Where's Sam?"

"Getting ice with Emily. I'm in charge for the moment" the man smiled, as if he just made a joke.

"Is Jacob coming?" the girl asked, softly, her eyes looking strangely sad. She was watching Embry, but also me, I realized. I narrowed my eyes at her as I caught her staring. She quickly averted hers to the ground.

"No, neither is Leah. It's just Seth and me," Embry shook his head. It was odd seeing how Jared seemed both relieved and deflated. Like he wanted Jacob there, but knew he was better away.

"Figures it'd be that way," the man nodded, shifting slightly. His girlfriend squeezed his hand, her kind eyes offering support. An unexpected pang of emptiness hit my gut. They were lucky to have each other.

As if sensing my gaze the man looked at me as if just noticing I was there. His eyes bounced from me then back to at Embry again, suddenly extremely curious. "

"Oh, uh, this is Brynn," Embry added quickly. "Um, the guy I pushed into the ocean earlier today, she's his sister. Brynn, this is Jared and his girlfriend Kim."

Jared nodded and Kim let out a soft hello. I watched them wearily, also choosing to nod my greeting. You know to seem tough and aloof and all that jazz.

"Sorry about your brother. I think we kind of set him off earlier," Jared said, scratching the back of his head with his free arm. I shrugged, not saying anything. He glanced back at Embry again. "Maybe if Paul could have kept his just kept his big mouth shut we would've had a chance to catch up." I saw Embry's expression being mirrored in Jared's face now. That same sadness.

"Maybe another time," Embry said, smiling again. The smile was easier this time, and there was more of a spark in his eye. I think Jared's little olive branch there was making him feel better.

Back by the main group, basically everyone was watching us. It was like they were waiting on an invisible command before they rushed forward. Gabe and Seth were standing off to the side still having their own conversation; although they seemed to be eavesdropping on us all the while. From the big group, a meaty figure pushed forward suddenly, another huge shirtless guy, of course, this one even bigger than Jared. He caught several looks as he closed the distance between us, clearly he was breaking the rules.

"Well you're going to have to start hanging around more often then," he boomed, as if he had heard the entire conversation. Then without wasting a beat he jerked his chin towards me. "Who's the chick?" he asked loudly, as if I wasn't even there.

"The chick has ears, and happens to be present, " I snapped, glaring at him.

"My bad," he rolled his eyes sarcastically. "I hadn't noticed." Then he looked expectantly at Embry, waiting for an introduction.

Embry introduced me to the new guy in the same way that he did to Jared and Kim- as Aiden's sister. There was more of an edge to his voice this time though. A hint of mutual dissaproval maybe?

The guy, Paul, just looked back and forth between the two of us, then back over at Jared who gave an almost imperceivable nod. Suddenly, Paul let out a booming laugh, one that practically drowned out all other noise on the beach. Then shaking his head, he started walking back to the group, muttering something about a girl named Rachel.

I never liked feeling confused. And this was no exception.

Crossing my arms, I sent Embry an annoyed look. He just shrugged at me though, looking kind of pissed too. I decided that I didn't like Paul.

"Come on," Jared sighed. "Might as well go join the rest of them now, before they all jump out of their skins."

I tensed as we followed Jared and Kim up towards the fire pit. About half way there, Seth seemed to materialize next to me, Gabe still trotting beside him. The group of onlookers all unfroze at once when they saw us approaching, and I watched from a distance as he was enveloped with people. There was a lot of fist bumps, bro shakes, and back slapping going on. Most of the people coming to greet us were all tall muscular boys with minimal clothing on.

I felt like an outsider standing there alone while he got this massive greeting. I wondered briefly if I walked away if anyone would notice.

Embry seemed to fit right in. There was a slight edge of formality, a little bit of reserved awkwardness, but he seemed happy to see everyone and visa versa. I caught his eye as he enveloped a dark-haired girl- who appeared to be Paul's girlfriend- in a bear hug. He beamed at me, releasing the girl and returning to his spot a few seconds ago beside me.

"Everyone, I want you to meet Brynn," he said smiling. "Brynn this is everyone."

I stared horrified at the faces that were all turned towards me now. There were several hellos being thrown around, but really it was hard to keep track, there was so many people.

"Ready for names?" He asked me.

"No," I muttered back quietly, looking anxiously at the crowd of people around me. I was feeling kind of claustrophobic suddenly. He just laughed lightly.

"Don't worry it get's less confusing the longer you stick around. It can be hard at first, with them all looking like basically the same person," the girl Embry had just hugged assured me.

Going in a circle, Embry started rattling off names. Rachel. Collin. Brady. Then of course, Paul, Gabe, Jared, and Kim. Sue, Billy, and old Quil, the elders, were sort of watching from afar. That boy, Benjamin, who cheated Embry out of twenty bucks at the junk yard the other week was there with his dad too; although he seemed like a bit of an outsider. And of course, last but not least. Megan who seemed to have arrived just moments ago.

My frame froze when I saw her, sitting on a log all by herself away from the crowd surrounding us. She was watching me. And when I say me, I mean me. She wasn't looking at her brother, or Seth, or Embry, like most people were. She was watching me with this expression, and I could have sworn that she looked jealous. Jealous of me.

Why? I had no idea, but I wanted to know. I almost asked her, went up to her right then and there and demanded answers. The only problem with that was that it involved leaving Embry for a moment. And his presence was the only thing keeping me calm in the center of the current large crowd. Part of me thought that if I walked over to talk to Megan, he might follow. That'd make things easier. When I glanced back at him, though, I found him preoccupied.

There was a new boy standing frozen by the edge of the circle. He must have come down from the road while I was watching Megan. Again, he was also tall, tanned, and shirtless. His curly hair distinguished him. As well as the little girl he was carrying on his shoulders. Although, realistically, I couldn't rely on the kid to remember which guy he was.

"How is Jacob?" The boy choked out. I think it was the first words that he'd said, but it was possible that I was jumping into the middle of their conversation. I felt like there was a lot of weight to his question. I mean everyone had asked how Jacob was doing, but this new guy seemed much more concerned. There was a hint of longing in his voice too. Like he wanted to go find out the answer for himself, but didn't have the balls to do so.

"He's happy. Happier than I've seen him in a while," Embry said, looking suddenly pale. Most of the others were scattering off to do other things now. Embry and this new guy had at least the semblance of privacy. Almost subconsciously, I found myself stepping closer to Embry. My gut craved for me to reach out and grab his hand again. I couldn't see his face, but I could just feel the turmoil radiating off of him. Seeing this guy was significant. It meant something to Embry, I could feel it in my core. And at the same time, I felt like he needed me. There was some sort of invisible pull there, telling me to get closer, just to be near him.

It's hard to explain the feeling. I wasn't even fully aware that it was there at the time. All I knew is that I wanted to be standing by his side, and so that's what I did.

"That's good..." the guy nodded. Then he paused, a flash of distress in his eyes. "How 'bout you?"

Embry shrugged, stealing a glance down at me. He quickly looked back at his friend when he saw I was watching him. "I've been okay, I guess. Just trying to stay busy, I guess," he said.

I was going to have to inform him later that he was a really sucky liar. Honestly, I think the little girl on his friend's shoulders could have thought up something better. And currently, she was entertaining herself by pulling on her ride's hair. That was saying something.

"So you're Brynn?" the guy asked, glancing down at me, a smile now on his face. The atmosphere had changed rather suddenly. I guess they both were done with the serious talk now. It's sort of how the world works, you know? People can only deal with so much before they decide to just swallow their problems and pretend like nothing is wrong with the world. I'm sure there'd be more drama later, but for now, Embry and his friend seemed to have reached their pain threshold.

I nodded at him. He must have been here longer than I'd thought if he already knew my name. I should probably try to be a little more observant.

"I'm Quil," he said, extending me his hand. "And this here is Claire." I took it, glancing up at the kid who wasn't even paying attention to us. It was kind of weird he had introduced her, but whatever.

"Er- it's nice to meet you," I said, awkwardly.

Quil's smile widened slightly, although he still seemed kind of sulky. "Hey Claire-bear, someone's talking to you. Come on, at least pay a little attention. Embry's here," he said poking the girl in the stomach. She squealed, grabbing onto his big hand, while sneaking a glance up at Embry and me.

"I was bwaiding your hair Qwil," she complained.

"Come on Claire, I haven't seen you in almost a month, don't I get a hello?" Embry asked, feigning hurt.

"Hellloooo Embry," the girl humored him.

"And what about Brynn. This is Embry's new friend, you've got to say hello to her too," Quil pushed her.

"Hello Bwynnn," she sang.

"Much better," Quil approved, poking her in the stomach again to provoke another happy shriek. My chest filled a little for the girl. There used to be a time when Aiden was like that with me. I mean, we had our fair share of arguments and our relationship was a bit different than Quil and Claire's being that I was only one year younger than him. But we used to be close. Claire was lucky to have an older brother who cared so much for her.

Aiden was such a freaking douche bag now.

"Qwil, I want to go look at the sea shells again," Claire announced.

"Sure," Quil nodded, then turning to us, he raised an eyebrow. The rift was back, and I could see the gleam of hurt in his eyes again. "You guys wanna come?"

Embry looked down at me, waiting for my word. "Sure," I shrugged. Embry's eyes lit up a little, apparently very happy that he didn't have to separate from his friend. I'd have to ask for some more of the details on Quil later.

As we headed down towards the water, I saw Embry looking back towards the fire. Another huge man was standing in the sand. He was by far, the biggest one I'd seen so far, and definitely was the oldest. A woman was beside him, a white scar cutting down the entire side of her face. Embry was staring at the man though. From this distance, it was hard to make out the expressions on the stranger's face, but I had a feeling that even up close, his face would be a hard mask. Not peeling his eyes off Embry and Quil, the man jerked his chin upwards- a nod. Embry returned the gesture, his eyes sad. There was no more communication. No hellos or introductions. Just a nod.

And I knew on the spot, that man must be Sam.

* * *

**A/N Another late update, sorry guys. I fought a bit with this chapter. At first I thought it was going to be one chapter. But then it was getting too long, so I decided to keep this one to introductions, and then the next chapter will be more of the actual bon fire. Hope you guys don't mind that this was a little more serious. I really want to explore the wolf pack split with this story. I feel like we don't get to see much of it in the actual books (which is understandable as the inter dynamics of the packs are probably not really on Bella's radar). It's my personal opinion that the split wouldn't be as clean as shown in the books. The wolves were all ready to kill each other just weeks before Bella turned, and even though they're bound by pack law to be peacable now (with Jacob's imprint and stuff), I'd think that there would be a bit of a rift there. Especially right now when things are still kind of fresh, and they haven't had a chance to grow back together yet. **

**That's what I wanted to show here. Hopefully I did. **

**I'd like to thank sugarishfreak and ChocolatePotterCrossaint for reviewing. It's always nice to know that y'all are still out there even after late updates like this one:)**

**So yeah, I'd love to hear all your thoughts on this chapter. Remember to reveiw :)**


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